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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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Sfpjt Sopijrigjji Ifn.. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



REDFIELD'S 



Comparative Physiognomy; 



OR, 



RESEMBLANCES 
BETWEEN MEN AND ANIMALS. 



BY 

JAMES W. REDFIELD, M.D. 



With his hand thus o'er his brow, 
/ He falls to such perusal of my face, 

As he would draw it. 

Shakspere. 



ILLUSTRATED BY 330 ENGRAVINGS. 



NEW YORK: 

FOWLER & WELLS, PUBLISHERS 

753 Broadway. 



<$?%& 
■$&- 



COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY 
FOWLER & WELLS, 



PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



It is impossible for a well-balanced mind to look upon hu- 
man beings or animals without forming some judgment o" 
their talent, character and disposition. These are indicatec 
bv certain signs which the observer recognizes in the form 
motion and expression. Every part of the man is to b 
studied, for every part is more or less capable of indicating 
internal emotion of some sort. The very step of a man will 
indicate to those acquainted with him the mood of his mind 
for the time being, whether it. be stern, angry, haughty, se- 
cretive, cautions or happy. The brain, being the centre of the 
nervous system, is the master of the entire bodily constitu- 
tion, and of the peculiar states of the mind which throw the 
muscles of the face and even the whole body into different 
attitudes, giving expression to the man's fear, hope, love, 
trust, hatred, anger, suspicion, pride or vanity ; and thus on 
the dramatic stage we find men and women who can talk the 
language and represent the action of many different charac- 
ters. But these persons must have Destructiveness and 
Secretiveness enough to put on the expression of face and 
attitude of body, and express the spirit, which belong to 
Kichard Third, or Iago ; and he must also have the Benevo- 
lence, honesty and affection of Othello, or he can not manifest 
the countenance and tones of voice belonging to that sincere 



and 'honest character. While under the influence of certain 
faculties, the face can be made to frown, or smile, or to look 
bland and genial, hard or hopeless, according to the state of 
the mind for the time being. It is well known that if a per- 
son takes a responsible and difficult position, and is obliged 
to put on sternness and severity of manner and expression — 
as, for instance, in being a guardian of a prison — the constant 
exercise of Firmness, Self-esteem, Combativeness and Secret- 
iveness will come to be expressed in the face ; so that in his 
social moods, when he is away from the prison and is trying 
to enjoy himself and be bland and amiable, that veil of stern- 
ness will be drawn over the face, or rather the face will be 
drawn into a stern and dignified and hard expression. It is 
well known that if a manly person becomes addicted to drunk- 
enness, and is a sot for years, his manner and bearing become 
shuffling, depressed and submissive, while his face assumes a 
brutal, stupid, depraved expression. He looks as he feels; 
he walks and moves and appears as he is inside. But let him 
reform, and gradually he will straighten up, stand firmly, look 
the world squarely in the face, and though there may be some 
marks of the foe in his countenance, in the main his former 
expression of face is recovered ; but when the whole man is 
brutalized and debased, the functions of the brain are per- 
verted. Nevertheless, to the student of Phrenology, his head 
represents his original natural character as it was manifested 
before he had fallen and become debased, and as it comes to 
be when he gets back to his normal condition. 

We knew a man who could smile on one side of his face 
and frown with the other at the same time, and have his photo- 
graph taken in that condition. It is amusing to see how a party 
of persons can dress themselves to suit different characters, and 
put on the expression adapted to exhibit the character desired. 



PUBLISHERS 7 PREFACE; 

And even little children in their plays will put on the gravity 
and dignity of the grandmother, or the stern spirit of the 
mother, or the soft and mellow manners of some old neighbor 
whom the children know, although every feature of those faces 
are different from their own. They will look soft or sour, 
contemptuous or fierce, according to the state of mind they 
think of when they make up their faces. There is a natural 
language of the mental faculties, and it is brought into action 
whenever a particular faculty is called into use. Thus terror 
and fear are expressed with a staring eye and an anxious ap- 
pearance ; steadfastness by a compression of the mouth ; cun- 
ning by a foxy-like smirk of the face and a partial closing of 
the eyes ; pride by an uplifted carriage of the head and high 
and stately stepping; and though these feelings are mani- 
fested in the face and with a peculiar expression and action of 
the whole body, the root or basis of these feelings, respectively, 
are in the brain, and they can be ascertained when the patient 
is entirely passive, and none of the faculties are so active as 
to show themselves in gesture or facial expression, even if the 
examiner be blindfolded. 

The eye, which is supposed to be the most expressive fea- 
ture of the face, is largely influenced by the scenery around it, 
by the arching or frowning of the brow, by opening wide the 
eye, or by partially closing it. The mouth, if one will watch, 
in the animated conversation of children among themselves, 
he will see how the lip will snap out and pout when some 
passage in the child's talk is contemptuous respecting some 
act or person ; and again how gracious the mouth will shape 
itself when the child, in a moment after, speaks of some person 
that has done kindly by it ; then there are wonderful combi- 
nations of the features which make up the faces of joy, hope, 
hatred or fear, surprise, contempt, jealousy, and are physiognom- 



6 



PUBLISHERS PREFACE. 



ical indications of the internal life which, for the time being, 
may be active. Most people look directly into the eye, then 
they take in the whole features, and, if possible, they look at the 
head ; and many people are not aware how much they are in- 
fluenced by a good or bad head, as connected with the face. 

To illustrate how much the appearance of the head adds to 
the expression of the face, and how much it really changes the 
expression of it, and how instantly one's opinions of a stranger 
are thus modified, we introduce four engravings : 

Fig. 1 is the Emperor 
Vitellius. See what an 
animal neck, what a 
broad head and brutal 
face, what severity and 
fierceness seem to be 
manifest in the whole 
make-up ! Such a man's 
talents will work to- 
wards the animal side of 
life and aid in working 
out their base sugges- 
tions. 

Fig. 2, Thomas Wil- 
son, D.D.,LL.D., shows 
gentleness of expression in the face and a splendid head, tow- 
ering in the region of the moral and intellectual faculties. 
The general observer will take in the whole head and face : 
will see refinement, delicacy and tenderness in the face ; and 
in the large and high moral top-head he will see that which 
would make a common plowman, anywhere, lift his hat with 
respect. These two portraits were each engraved on two 
blocks o£ wood, neatly joined just above the eyes, so that 




Fig. 1. — Vitellius. 



PUBLISHERS P'.ir.FACE. 



they could be taken apart, and the head of each man put 

upon the face of the other man. 

Fig. 3 is the face of 
Vitellius, high enough 
to take in the eyes, with 
a different head. Above 
the eyes it is the head 
of the Rev. Dr. Wilson. 
How that great forehead 
seems to redeem and 
lighten up the brutal 
face of Yitellius; how 
different now is the ex- 
pression of the face 
when surmounted by an 
elevated and noble head, 
with this tremendous 
Fig. 2.— Thos. Wilson, D D., LL.D. bodily boiler to generate 

power, and that fine 

head as an engine to 

use the power, working 

upward rather than 

downward, away from 

cruelty, savageness and 

lust toward morality. 

We find the head seems 

to redeem the face in a 

great degree. 

Fig. 4 is Dr. Wilson's 

face, with the head of 

Yitellius ; with that low, 

scowling brow, with that Fig. 3— Wilsons Head, Yitellius 1 Face. 





rUULIbHEKS PliEFACE. 



broad and cruel side-bead, bow it makes the amiable face 
look tierce and cunning and revengeful (thus physiognomy 
should take in the whole head as well as the face), and shows 
us tbat brain must be studied as the source of power and ex- 
pression, and that every feature of the face, every form and 
motion of the body, are employed to indicate character. 

Tbe following work, as its title indicates, is " Comparative 
Physiognomy," and shows marked resemblances between ani- 
mals and human beings. It is well known that men who are 

interested in horses are 
able to judge of the 
value and qualities of a 
horse, as to his disposi- 
tion, his tractableness, 
his endurance, speed 
and strength, while he 
is quietly standing, and 
such men are willing to 
buy a horse and pay a 
liberal price on their 
own bare judgment of 

its qualities. If, then, 
Fig.4.— Vttellius'Head, Wilson's Face. men can j udge of ft 

horse and not be deceived, why should they not be able to 
judge of each other '( If a man wants a servant, a clerk or 
an apprentice, a business partner, or a partner for life, why 
should he not be able to judge as readily and correctly of the 
human being as men are able to judge of a horse \ Yet a 
man may work with another for a year in business and not 
understand him so well as a horse-dealer would understand a 
horse in five minutes. Let us remember that the human 
being can be studied and understood, and that the knowledge 
Oi men is worth much more than a knowledge of animals. 




PUBLISHERS PREFACE. \J 

Every observer will remember marking the resemblances 
between the face and expression of certain animals and hu- 
man beings ; and though, when the lines are drawn, they are 
not so much alike as the first impression of them would seem 
to indicate, yet we can never look a certain dog, horse, cow or 
sheep in the face without thinking of some person we know 
who resembles, or reminds us of, the animal in question ; and 
where men look leonine and impress everybody with the 
feeling, " There comes a lion," the man has many of the 
traits which belong to the lion. If a man looks like a fox, he 
has the foxy spirit; if he has the expression of the noble 
horse, or of the better class of dogs, he may be trusted and 
regarded with confidence. It is at least an interesting study, 
as the following pages will show. 

February, 1884. Fowler & Wells. 



PREFACE. 



The word preface is an indication that a book, like its 
author, must have & face / and unless it be a misnomer, there 
is no reason why it should not be illustrated witli faces. That 
it comes first and foremost it would be useless to observe, 
had not certain persons been inclined to put it in the back- 
ground. We will slate frankly, at the outset, that this partic- 
ular preface is intended to " face down" — not by " barefaced 
assertions," but by a presentation of faces and arguments — 
the unjust treatment to which the face has been subjected. 

Why should a periodical, that professes to be a " Journal" 
of Phrenology and of kindred sciences, look out at the back 
of its head whenever it takes a peep at Physiognomy ? We 
know not, but humanity claims that the eyes in such a case 
should be set right. We address ourselves, therefore, to an- 
swering the objections contained in two articles on this sub- 
ject in the " Phrenological Journal," both of them new-year's 
presents, for which we have reason to be thankful. 

The first formidable obstacle we meet with is this: "The 
naked skull of poor Yorick, notwithstanding its yawning eye- 
sockets and ghastly grin, presents the evidences of his former 
warmth of affection and his racy wit, although the signs of 
these emotions in the face are obliterated for ever." Is there, 
then, nothing left of the skull but the cranial portion ? and 
does not Physiognomy claim that the character is indicated 
in the features of the lace, as well as in the expressions ? 



PREFACE. 



The idea conveyed by the objection is, that the " naked 
skull" is the all of Phrenology, and only a part of Physiog- 
nomy. The naked skull, says the writer, " is the only organic 
memento of the character of the dead ;" but Physiognomy 
claims the advantage of the naked face, while living, and of 
being able to say, "Blessed be the art that can immortalize !" 
In portraits, the skull remains in the background, where na- 
ture placed it; and the power of art is expended upon the 
face, in making it live, and breathe, and grow warm with 
life', and almost speak. "Would the " naked skull of poor Yor- 
ick" have been treated contemptuously in the third person, or 
gibingly in the second, if it had been as good an index of 
character as the face? "How abhorred in my imagination it 
is ! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have 
kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now ? your 
gambols ? your songs ? your flashes of merriment that were 
wont to keep the table on a roar?" Contrast this with Cow 
per's address to his mother's picture : — 

44 That face is thine, thy own sweet smile I see, 
The same that oft in childhood solaced me !" 

What if somebody should become so phrenology-mad as to 
hang up " the only organic memento of the character of the 
dead" on the parlor-wall ! Pity it is that Nature should have 
made "the only reliable index of character" so inaccessible; 
and that Art, when Nature fails in her attempt, should sub- 
stitute a wig, and add such a fashion of head-dress as to be 
a burlesque upon the reliability, pretensions, and significance, 
of the cranium ! 

The second formidable objection is this : " The temporary 
effects of an emotion may be set forth in the face, obscuring 
f<> me time being the natural traits of character, while the 
brm of the head remains the same, offering to the phrenolo- 



PREFACE. 5 

gist equal facility to read the real elements of the mind, 
whether it be lashed into fury, and the face distorted with 
rage, or lulled to a calmness of spirit and placidity of counte- 
nance by all the soothing appliances of peace and love." We 
would like particularly to see the author of this thrilling pas- 
sage examining a head when the mind was "lashed into fury, 
and the face distorted with rage ;" and we would inquire if, 
under the "soothing appliances" of his fingers, the bones of 
the cranium ever discovered themselves to be more osseous 
than those of the face? 

Not far from this stage of the criticism several faces are 
introduced from the " favorite delineator of eccentric charac- 
ter," Dr. Yalentine, showing how a man may " frame his face 
to all occasions." Let us compare " Monsieur Grenoble," or 
the representation of " a sympathetic, good-natured, confiding, 
simple-hearted Frenchman," with a genuine exhibition of the 
same traits, and see if there is not a difference. Here is a 





Frenchwoman whose habitual character is that described above, 
and where is the hesitation in deciding which is the genuine 
and which is the false ? In the first, the feeling which appears 
npon the face is superficial ; but in the other the feeling is the 
character itself, and the expression is not put on, but is the 
very face. 

By the side of a countenance that is said to exhibit " every 



PREFACE. 



line, angle, and expression, of moping melancholy," and is 
called "the embodiment of sadness — a visage fit to freeze 
the 80111" — let ns place the expression of sullen gloominess 
and frigidity in a woman who resembles but is seen to be in 
a very different mood of mind from the other. In this com- 





parison, the pretended " hypochondriac" is easily distinguished 
from the portrait, which has the expression of genuine senti- 
ment and stern reality. 

The second criticism is now in turn. First, it says of the 
brain, that " it is the trunk of the mental tree, and that all 
outward signs of character and emotion spring from and de- 
pend upon it, as do the branches and leaves of the natural 
tree upon its trunk." According to this, " all the outward 
signs of character and emotion" are in the arms and hands, 
and the features and expressions of the countenance, which 
are compared to branches and leaves. This is more than we 
are willing to accept, for we acknowledge that there are some 
outward signs of character in the skull. 

The next objection is the more formidable on account of 
being an assertion, which is this : " "We often find a person, 
whose father and mother are very unlike in character, who 
resembles in head one parent and in face the other. Such a 
person's character is always found to follow the phrenological 

development The face will everywhere be recognised as 

oemg very much like that of the father, for example, while 



PREFACE. 7 

the character is precisely that of the mother .... and as un- 
like that of the father .... as can well be imagined." The 
premises in this case will not sustain the r conclusions. That 
from a father and a mother, whose opposite characters are in- 
dicated by opposite faces, can be produced an offspring whose 
face and character are opposite to each other, is a contradic- 
tion in terms. If the face and the character " belie" each 
other, the one may as well be convicted of falsehood as the 
other : but the truth is, whatever belies one belies them both ; 
and the assertion, that one is true and not the other, belies itself. 
The next assertion which strikes us as leing very singular 
is this : A person " looks at the face, but the scenery above it 
gives him, after all, his idea of the man. We say an eye is 
beautiful, but it is as much the scenery around the eye that 
gives it beauty and expression as the eye itself, and even 
more." The first sentence teaches us that we can have no 
idea of a man till he doffs his hat; but the second descends 
from that high empyrean, and acknowledges that there is 
scenery around the eye, which, as the eye is very expressive, 
must be an important index of character. But the most ridic- 
ulous thing is, that a " a glass eye keeps pace exactly with the 
natural one, in all apparent changes of that speaking organ." 
Of course, then, when a high-spirited horse " darts the fire of 
passion" from his eyeballs, it is " the change of scenery around 
the eye, and not the eye itself;" and, of course, Art may do 
as well as Nature in manufacturing eyes ! Accordingly, our 
critic has caused a pair of eyes to be executed for the picture 
of the bust of Yitellius — with what intention we shall pres- 
ently see. It is quite probable, too, that Art can manufacture 
a face out of the odds and ends of different characters that 
shall be quite equal to one of Nature's own productions. On 
this principle, faces are manufactured that are intended to be, 
and that are, perfect contradictions to Physiognomy. 



8 



PREFACE. 



"To illustrate how the appearance of the head changes the 
expression of the face," the inventor introduces "four engra- 
vings." — " These," says he, " are made up from two portraits, 
each of which is engraved on two pieces of wood, divided just^ 
above the eyes, so that the head of each may be united to the 
other. These parts are mismatched. Two of the four arc as 
Nature made them ; the other two are composed of the head 
of each on the face of the other." In this quotation the man- 





ufacturing process is well described. It would seem as if the 
writer intended that his own two charming productions should 
be taken as illustrations of the principle that the head may 
be derived from one parent and the face from the other. As 
" the character is always found to follow the phrenological 
development," Yitellius and Wilson, having changed heads, 
must be described thus. First, Yitellius : " A man remarka- 
ble for talent, purity, and elevation of character ; a pattern of 
benevolence, of enlarged and liberal views, a zealous friend 
of the poor ; who lived, like Oberlin, for the human race." In 
his physiognomical judgment of Yitellius, the writer exclaims : 
M What a beastly face ! how sensual and gluttonous ! what 
tyranny and severity ! How much of the base robber and 
murderer are seen in that countenance ! how savage and how 
repulsive !" But, as the head of this beastly Roman emperor 



PREFACE. 9 

id turned over to the Rev. Dr. Wilson, this description of char* 
acter must go with it. We have presented above the portraits 
of these two individuals, and surely the thought of a mutual 
exchange of heads and faces between characters so perfectly 
>pposite is horrible. 

One other objection remains to be answered. It is the idea 
:hat in certain cases " the changes of expression are so great, 
And so mingled in their effects upon the facial muscles, as to 
nake the reading of character by that means a complete puz- 
:le." The writer of the following description of Kossuth did 
lot think so : — 

"A word of the orator's personal appearance. He is a lit- 
_e under size, perhaps five feet eight; erect, of fine form and 
igure, quick and elastic in movement, and of admirable and 
3ommanding gesture. The flexibility of his physical frame 
is the type of his flexibility of nature, and accurately obedient 
to its command. When he is roused, the soul speaks through 
the entire person. Hence comes the electric shock, the mag- 
netic effusion, that captivates and controls his hearers. His 
face is suffused with emotional indications, and is eminently 
susceptible of every expression. It melts in sadness, it lights 
up with enthusiasm, it grows fierce in passion, it flashes with 
mirth. Upon no man's face is the sunshine glow of delight 
more effectively expressed, yet is the prevailing expression 
sad and subdued. The eye tells of the treasures within. It 
js full, liquid, and in him the very window of the soul ; it is 
the ready outlet of a heart filled with emotion, and feminine 
in a gushing sympathy of expression, that needs not the poor 
interpreter of language. It mirrors a depth and reveals an 
inspiration of nature, cognizable to the dullest sense, as rare 
as it is captivating." 

In refutation of the above objection, we offer also the follow 
ing:~ 



10 PRE* A JE. 

"The artists,'* said Mr. Clay "have not generally succeed- 
ed well in taking my features but that has been in a great 
measure my own fault ; for my face never retains long the 
same expression, and, especially when I am under any excite- 
ment, it changes every moment. John Randolph once paid 
me a high compliment, not intentionally — for he seldom com- 
plimented any man — but, without intending it, he paid me 
what I esteem one of the highest compliments I ever received. 
He said, 'Whenever a debate is coming on, if I can get a 
sight of Mr. Clay's face, I can always tell which side he is 
going to take.' " 

The practice of affectation, or dissembling, so far from ad- 
ding lineaments and expressions to the countenance, absolutely 
obliterates them. It makes the face, on which was originally 
" the royal stamp of man," like a smooth shilling, which, 
though very attractive and pleasant to the feel, is liable to be 
called in question ; to be more closely scrutinized than a coin 
with an honest face upon it ; to be set down for something less 
than its original value ; to be branded as claiming to be of 
more value than it really is ; to receive the curse of Cain, to bear 
his mark, and thereafter be suffered to wander unmolested. 

Finally, we would observe that generally the brain and face 
are harmonious, but that always the former is subservient to 
the latter. The divining of character by the skull is subordi- 
nate to the practical, every-day reading to which the face is 
appropriated. Physiognomy is available on all occasions, and 
it is even a breach of etiquette not to look a man in the coun- 
tenance : but Phrenology can be employed only professionally, 
and discovers character " by fumbling up the hair and rub- 
bing the organs," which in most cases would be regarded as 
a gross impertinence. 

Nkw York, August, 1852. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I ] 




Chapter III 


Chapter IV. 


Chapter V 


Chapter VI 


Chapter VII 


Chapter VIII 


Chapter IX. 




Chapter XI 


Chapter XII 


Chapter XIII 


Chapter XIV 


Chapter XV 


Chapter XVI 


Chapter XVII 


Chapter XVIII 


Chapter XIX 


Chapter XX 


Chapter XXI 


Chapter XXII 


Chapter XXIII 


Chapter XXIV 


Chapter XXV 


Chapter XXVI 


Chapter XXVII. . . . 


Chapter XXVIII.. . . 


Chapter XXIX 


Chapter XXX 


Chapter XXXI 


Chapter XXXII.... 


Chaptfh XXXIII. . . 


Chapter XXXIV. . . 


Chapteb XXXV... 


Chaptfr XXXVI. . . 


Ch>^er XXXVII... 



Chapter XXXVIII. . Conclusion 



Heads and Faces pack 8 

Resemblances of Human Beings to Beasts and Birds. . 12 

" of Germans to Lions 21 

" of Prussians to Cats 28 

" of certain Persons to Eagles and Owls. . 35 

" " to the Rhinoceros. . . 41 

" of Negroes to Elephants 49 

" of certain Persons to Ostriches 56 

" " " to Storks 60 

" of the "Aztec Children" to Mice 65 

" of certain Persons to the Rat, Hare, 

Squirrel, and '"Possum" 70 

" of Human Beings to Apes '75 

" of Negroes to Fishes 81 

" in general 86 

" of Laplanders to Reindeers 89 

" of certain Persons to Herons 94 

" of Arabs to Camels 99 

" of certain Persons to Vultures 105 

" of Englishmen to Bulls HI 

" of Italians to Horses 123 

" " " continued 184 

of Turks to Turkeys 145 

" of Persians to Peacocks 152 

" of Chinamen to Hogs .167 

" " " continued 178 

" of Yankees to Bears 192 

" " " continued 206 

' of Russians to Geese 219 

" of Hindus to Swans 225 

" of Frenchmen to Frogs and Alligators. .232 

" " " continued 243 

" of Irishmen to Dogs 253 

" " " continued 265 

" of certain Persons to Pigeons, and of 

Spaniards to Cocks 280 

" of Jews to Goats 287 

" " " continued 296 

of Greeks to Sheep 309 

of certain Persons to Parrots and Mock- 
ing Birds 321 

323 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 



Vitellius, Emperor of Rome. . page 8 

Thomas Wilson, D. D., LL. D . . 8 

Osceola, the Seminole Chief 15 

Jenny Lind 21 

De Witt Clinton 21 

William VI., Duke of Van Beyeren 

(Flanders) 23 

Lyman Beecher, D. D 24 

John Jacob Astor 25 

Andrew Jackson 2*7 

Madame Trollope 28 

Zumalacarregui, the Carlist Chief. . 29 

Fernando Cortez 32 

Frederick the Great '34 

Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany 35 

A. Court de Gebelin 37 

Eleanora of Austria 40 

La Ronciere . 41 

John Reeves, Esq 49 

Sir William Custis, Bart, and M. P. . . 50 
Thomas Wood, the abstemious Mil- 
ler .... . 56 

George Canning, M. P 59 

Adam Walker 61 

Captain Cook 62 

Maximo, the Aztec 66 

Suraj-u-Dowlah, the Hindu Nabob. 71 

Sir Henry Clinton 72 

Anne of Cleves 73 

Joshua Makoniane 74 

Alexander Aubert, Esq., F. R. S. . . 77 
Dorothy Pentreath, of Mousehole, in 
Cornwall, the last Person who 
could converse in the Cornish 

Language 80 

William Charles Henry, Prince of 

Holland 81 

Painter of Flowers 91 

Condorcet 96 

John Howard 97 

Marat 109 

Harriet Martineau 112 

David Hume 112 

Edmund Burke 116 

Earl of Wicklow 118 

Henry VIII of England 119 



Cardinal Wolsey page 120 

Charles Caspar Siebold, Surgeon. . .121 

Ferdinand II., King of Naples 125 

Mea Matuiani 127 

Washington Allston 131 

Swedenborg 132 

L. Maria Bassi 135 

Victoria Colonna 1 36 

Melancthon 138 

Rammohur, Roy 140 

Edward VI 142 

Sir Isaac Newton 144 

Abdul-Medjid, Sultan of Turkey. . .149 
Patrick Russell, M. D, F. R. A. . . .151 

Abbas-Mirza, Shah of Persia 154 

Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria 182 

Erasmus 1 90 

Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet. . .194 
Meta-Koosega, a Chippewa Chief. .209 
A Captive Female among Indians. .210 

Daniel Webster 212 

General Anthony Wayne 216 

Paul, Emperor of Russia 219 

Emperor Alexander 220 

Grand-Duke Constantine 221 

John Cooke Van Exeter 222 

Louis XVI. of France 237 

Ledru Rollin 247 

Louis Napoleon 248 

Lewis Cass 260 

Laurence Sterne 262 

Fenelon 269 

Ben Jonson 279 

Francisco Goya, Painter 282 

Sforza 287 

Johannus Josephus Guillelmus Bru- 
te 309 

Kossuth 31? 

Alexander the Great 314 

Plato 315 

Oberhn 316 

Kalergi, the Greek Patriot 319 

Paul Jove 321 

Duke of Devonshire 322 

Lavater 32£ 

Abby Kelly Foster 326 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTEK I 



Aristotle, or some other equally sage philosopher, has said, 
u Man is an animal." If man was not well aware of this fact 
long before the saying was 
littered, he has certainly 
confirmed it in innumera- 
ble instances since, not on- 
ly in words, but in actions. 
It is a humiliating truth, of 
which many people seem 
proud ; but, as humility is 
a rare and inestimable vir- 
tue, it is well that we should 
be reminded of our frailty 
by a just comparison of our- 
selves with the brute crea- 
tion. What does hinder man 
from speaking like an angel 
on the topic that most inter- 
ests him, and upon which 
he most wishes to interest 
others? It is the animal 
nature that oppresses and 
clouds his mind, alas ! alas ! 
But there is a divine fire 
within him that struggles 




14 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

against the superincumbent mass, and ever and anon casts it 
high in air, mingled and confounded with substances of a 
lighter and more ethereal nature ; and there is a sun of truth 
and love that clears away the dark mists that obscure his 
vision. 

If, now, we were going to write a poem, we would com- 
mence with an invocation, like that with which Milton intro- 
duces his "Paradise Lost;" but, "gentle reader," we claim 
for our subject a scientific character, and we intend to treat 
it accordingly. An invocation, uttered within the chamber 
of the soul, is none the less appropriate on that account. 

We commence, then, with the admission that " man is an 
animal." A comparison of himself with the inferior animals 

has led him, in all ages 
of the world, to apply the 
names of animals to men, 
and the names of men to 
^^> animals, on the ground 
of a resemblance between 
them. There is often great 
significance in the words 
calf, goose, dog, monkey, and so on, when applied contemptu- 
ously. They betray fragments of a true science, perverted to 
the degradation of human beings. There is equal evidence 
of the rudiments of this science in the popular mind in the 
use of the words kitty, lamb, duck, dove, and the names of 
other gentle and favorite pets, applied to those who have cor- 
responding traits. In a rude and simple state of society, the 
designation of an individual by some ruling trait of charac- 
ter, embodied in the form of some animal, shows what foun- 
dation this department of Physiognomy has in nature and in 
the human mind, and how easily and naturally it is learned. 
It is not probable that the American Indians are indebted to 
our modern civilization for an observation of those correspond- 
ences which have led them to apply the terms vnld-cat, black- 
hawk, alligator, mapping-turtle, and the like, to their chiefs 
and warriors. 

But, lest the reader should suppose that his estimation of 




BEASTS AND BTRDS. 



15 



man is much higher than our own, we will here state that, 
in our opinion, the essential attributes of a human being 
elevate him to a point be- 
yond comparison with the 
animal creation. The term 
man, in its highest sense, 
is synonymous with angel. 
Men are not born, and per- 
ad venture we are not men 
when we " come to man's 
estate." It may be that we 
are but " children of an old- 
er growth." Man is the 
result of education, of im^ 
provement. He is " self- 
made," if he be made at all, and the character which he forms 
for himself is indicated in his countenance. But if truly a 
man, he considers himself the workmanship of a higher power, 
for in his own creation he works from a sense of duty, and in 
opposition to himself, or to the animal which Nature has made 
him. "We say emphatically — 

" Man is a name of honor for a king" — 

though, according to the definition, most men who are pro- 
moted to royalty are worthy of the title of " king of beasts." 







"Man is an animal," but he is more. He has the privilege 
of naming all the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, an^ 



16 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




the fishes of the sea. The lion is to eat straw like the ox, but 
he is no less a lion on that account ; and so it is with every 
other savage beast, or passion in the human beast. If the 
beast be made human, the comparison is favorable to the 
man ; but if the man be made animal, the comparison is fa- 
vorable to the beast. Dear reader, we do not wish to puzzle 

you, but do you not see the 
difference between compar- 
ing a beast with a man, and 
comparing a man with a 
beast ? Yes, you see there 
is some difference between 
calling an ass a faithful ser- 
vant and calling a faithful 
servant an ass ! If, there- 
'/'f 7 < fore, in the following pages, 

we fail to observe this dis- 
tinction, you will, for humanity's sake, pardon us, knowing 
that it was not intentional. 

The inferior races are like infants, who, as is well known, 
go on all-fours. The Ethiopian who opened this chapter is 
like a brat jnst learning to stand. Observe the posture — the 
arms, body, legs, and feet — and you will be struck with the 
similarity. What a reminiscence of infancy is awakened by 
that physiognomy ! Let it teach thee not to despise one whr 
is as Nature made him, until thou canst deny that thou was* 
ever a child. Thou wert misshapen, and some time in com- 
ing to the condition even of a quadruped, from which thou, 
mightst have grown a satyr — 

"Thy face itself 

Half mated with the royal stamp of man, 
And half o'ercome with beast !" 

Plato's definition of man was, " A bird without feathers." 
This is carrying the comparison rather too far, but it may be 
said that in many respects man has a striking resemblance 
to the bird. The bird aspires to a similar standing, though 
wisely he never takes advantage of his position. The feath- 
ered gentry are, we believe, biped animals without an excep- 



BEASTS AND BIRDS. 



17 



tion, and it is upon nis position upon two legs that man prides 
himself. Birds show something of the same vanity, without 
therefore laying any claim to superi- 
ority. They do, indeed, make use of 
all-fours in travelling, but it is never 
with more than two at a time. Birds, 
however, have a greater likeness to 
some people than to others. There 
are certain persons for ever flying 
about, making a greater flourish with 
their arms than with their feet : they 
preserve their hands in gloves, as 
carefully as a bird does his in feath- 
ers ; and when they are not swinging 
their arms, in imitation of rapid trav- 
elling, they carry their hands tucked 
under their coat-tails, behind their 
backs. They are bound at all events 
not to show their hands, lest people 
should know that they have any, and 
should insist upon their making use 
of them. The man who very much 
resembles a bird invariably attempts 
to live by his wits, however little his 
noddle may contain. But he is not, 
by any means, the only person who 

adopts this method of gaining a livelihood. Those who re- 
semble foxes and pussy-cats do the same. 

But as every person has an individuality of his own, which 
is not to be confounded with that of any other, it is necessary 
that we should be more particular. Here is a person (see 
next page) with a sharp, bird-like countenance, who is trying 
to assure himself that he has a genuine bill, or that it is not a 
jaw with teeth in it, by which he is in danger of being bitten. 
The result of the examination will probably be, that he has a 
long bill, and that he feels like a bird. He is evidently of 
the kind that was forbidden to the Jews, for the reason prob- 
ably that he is too much like them to be " taken in ;" and hia 

2 




18 



COMP A R ATTVE P HYSIOGNOM Y 




partiality for bills is entirely on account of the havoc they 
make among the frogs, and young lizards, and ether small-fry, 

that are found in shallow 
places. His ear is a migh- 
ty small one, just fitted to 
be the lodging-place of a 
quill ; and you might know, 
without asking his attention 
for a few moments, that he 
is a " deaf adder." Think 
you he makes any great use 
of the quill upon which he 
prides himself so amazing- 
ly? It is an apology for 
not grasping with his hands 
something more substantial 
than a feather, and it is a token that he plumes himself upon 
his ability. 

Here is a bird on a 
roost, sharpening his wit 

with a penknife, a migh- i\ 

ty labor of his hands, 
considering the disposi- 
tion of his feet to take 
upon themselves the of- 
fice of handling. Ex- 
amine him from top to 
toe, and you will ex- 
pect that when anything 
comes in his way, he 
will remove it with his 
foot ; and that when he 
wishes to draw anything 
nearer to him, his feet 
will be found more ac- 
commodating than his 
hands. The hand, in his 
opinion, has a higher of- 




BEASTS AND BIRDS. 



19 



iice to perform. It is a quill-holder, and there is no knowing 
what high nights this gray goose may take into the regions 
of space, to bring down fancies and imaginations — 

" Such as take lodgings in a head 
That's to be let unfurnished" — 



into the regions of tangible reality 

What have we here? A bird, 
saving the feathers, which might 
b.e supplied with a few tatters, or 
else with a coat more smooth and 
glossy. This also is one of the 
creations of Dailey, who seems 
ambitious to have his creations 
classed with those of Nature. 
Those legs ! — there is something 
in their position that beggars 
description. What need we to 
speak of the body, the arms, the 
head, the features, the expres- 
sion ? they speak for themselves, 
and it is fortunate for a good ex- 
ample that it teaches its own les- 
son. 

By dwelling too long on the 
subject of birds, we are in dan- 
ger of becoming flighty. We 
will simply say that the speci- 
mens of the rara avis are, if the popular opinion be true, very 
frequently met with. The individual above, no more than 
those preceding him, can be accused of soiling his hands by 
very hard labor, and will certainly get his living in some 
easy way, without any greater tax upon his wit than is natural 
to him. 

On the following page is a real "fly-away" — and 6he 
is but one of a multitude of the same variety. Whether 
it be a robin, a tomtit, or a lady-bird, it is not important 
to decide But let us, if our subject does not keep us up in 




20 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



spite of ourselves, descend from birds in general to birds in 
particular. "We can not make minute observations upon the 

wing — and are not so 
skilled in marksmanship 
as not to require our bird 
to be at rest in order to 
hit him. When the art 




ist had made a capital hit, and fixed his quarry to the spot on 
which it stood, which is generally some old limb of a tree, we 
are prepared to aim at the mark, and may stand some chance 
of fitting it too. 



THE LION. 



21 



CHAPTEK II. 




In likening human beings to animals, people sometimes 
blunder. Somebody took it into his head to call Jenny Lind 
the " Swedish nightingale ;" and, in 
endeavoring to conform her face to the 
theory, the most untruthful and insip- 
id representations have been palmed 
upon the world as likenesses. The 
truth is, Jenny Lind, in the expression 
and contour of the face, and in gait 
and mien, resembles a lioness. There 
is something in the unimposing dignity 
and active strength of the lioness that 
contents us, while it awakens an al- 
most unconscious admiration ; we feel 
that she is fully deserving of her kingly 
mate. And these same qualities strike us in the character, 
personal appearance, and manners, of Jenny Lind. It is no 

objection to this resemblance 
that her voice is powerful, res- 
onant, and of great compass — 
for it is the counterpart of the 
most splendid base that was 
ever heard. 

A prominent characteristic 
of those who resemble the lion 
is boldness of project, and a 
bringing of distant places and 
objects into a state of equilib- 
rium, by a law like that which 
governs commerce and the sea. 
" De Witt Clinton and the Grand Canal" is a very natural 




22 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY 



association of ideas, and the face of that individual shows a 
strong resemblance to the lion. That very face, if it ap- 
proached more literally to the lion, 
to which it bears a resemblance, 
would be that of a " regular bruis- 
er;" for the theatre in which his 
lion-quality exercises itself is one 
requiring pickaxe, and crowbar, 
and " horse-power," literally to the 
end of time. Where this is the 
case, horse-power may be consid- 
ered as synonymous with reason 
caught in the process of a demon- 
stration and unable to extricate itself. It is there bound like 
Ixion to a wheel, to suffer torture, till the power that resides 
in a complication of wheels comes to its relief. The horse, it 
should be observed, is horribly afraid of the lion. 

The person represented on the preceding page (De "Witt 
Clinton) has a German face, and the Germans as a nation re- 
semble lions. Of the next two figures, the countenance of 





THE LION. 



23 



the female is almost literally that of a lion fast asleep, while 
the face of the man is deprived of this dignified resemblance 




by a paltry pipe. In whatever the German descends i\ 
proper characteristics, he approaches the hog. Canals 
Nature has failed to es- 
tablish intercommunica- 
tion by rivers, are such 
works of art as bold minds 
alone are capable of pro- 
jecting — and Germany 
abounds in these. In lit- 
erature, science, theolo- 
gy, and in everything, the 
Germans are distinguish- 
ed for the vastness of 
their projects, and for ex- 
ecution equal to their de- 
signs. Everything, from 
the crown of the head to 
the sole of the foot, and 



•urn ins 
, where 




2t 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



from the treasury to the chest in which the laborer deposites 
his earnings, is upon an extensive scale. What people in the 

world make cakes of such vast 
circumference and diameter as 
they? Whether Reason has 
enough concern in their nation- 
al affairs to substitute intellect- 
ual and moral power for physi- 
« ^ cal, and labor-saving machine- 
'j 1 ry for animal force, is a prob- 
lem in the course of solution. 

A noble lion is that of which 
we are reminded by a face like 
the following. Some large proj- 
ect of usefulness, in his own 
proper field, is as necessary to this person as the breath he 
draws. His animal nature is suited to his moral and intel- 





lectual, and is subservient to the higher. Of the lion, it may 
be said — 

"He has, I know not what, 



Of greatness in his looks, and of high fate. 
That almost awes me." 



THE LION". 



25 



He is a symbol of the mighty passions that slumber in the 
human breast, waiting to be taken into the service of Benev- 
olence, which is " mightiest in the mighty," and of Truth, 
which is " mighty and will prevail." The face of the lion, 
therefore, has a wonderful resemblance to the human, but to 
some persons much more than to others. 

The next example which we present of a resemblance to the 
lion is John Jacob Astor. The history of this individual, ir 





n^p^ 



connection with his face, is a confirmation of the principle 
stated at the outset. A sordid look, we see, is compatible 
with the lion, otherwise there would be no pertinence in the 
allusion to " the lion's share." But there is no littleness in 
anything that he thinks or does. It is not emulation that 
makes the lion-like individual do things on a larger scale than 
others. He has the desire of doing great things, but they are 
little in his estimation when he has done them. He there- 
fore takes no pride in what he does ; and to show that what 
others stare at, is nothing in his eyes, he may give it away. 
The " Astor House" was given by the father to the son, for a 
dollar, it is said, directly after it was completed. 

There is a strong infusion of the noble qualities of the lion 
into the mastiff, and the dogs of St. Bernard ; but the dog 
that bays the moon is like those who magnify a sixpence to 
the size of that deceitful luminary, and are slightly lunatic. 



26 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




The individual before us bears a perverted resemblance to 
the lion, but resembles more nearly the variety of dogs just 

referred to, and may be supposed 
to hold on to a shilling so tightly 
as to press a hole through it ! 

The resemblance between An- 
drew Jackson and the lion, in char- 
acter and physiognomy, may be 
easily traced in the representations 
given on the following page. Mag- 
nanimity, in one of its phases, is sy- 
nonymous with heroism, with great- 
ness of soul, and greatness in noble 
V deeds. It is fitting, therefore, that 

the " old hero" should resemble a 
lion. The sign of the choleric temperament is characteristic 
of both, and of those previously mentioned. How could Jack- 
son brush that hair of his in any other way than Nature dis- 
poses it % His disposition is to resemble the lion, as well in 
the external as the internal, or he would resemble him in 
neither. How obvious it is, therefore, that the character must 
impress itself upon the countenance, and that they must cor- 
respond with each other perfectly ! What an interesting face 
is that of Jackson, when we read his character indelibly im- 
pressed upon it, and trace the resemblance which we here 
discover ! 

Let it be borne in mind that the animal passions, when 
governed by the moral and intellectual faculties, are very 
different from what they are in animals. This is necessary, 
if we would form a correct idea of the person who has any of 
the marks of the lion in his countenance. Such a person is 
either generous or cruel, peaceable or savage, noble or treach- 
erous, magnanimous or mean. The most truly magnanimous 
person is not above performing menial offices for the sake of 
the happiness of others, and this is from a faculty that in ani- 
mals and in bad people is the very opposite of magnanimity — ■ 
it is from a faculty that may be called meanness. This fac- 
ulty rae a large sign in the lion; but as it aspires to be the 



THE LION. 



27 



servant, and to do the bidding of Magnanimity and of all the 
higher faculties, the lion stands for nobility in the human race, 
as his physiognomy shows. 

The love of overcoming and 
the love of triumph are elements 
of tremendous power in the lion, 
and are prodigious in those who 
are to be classed under the head 
of " lions." The traits which dis- 




tinguish this animal are suitable to royalty. Of the British 
sovereigns, "William the Conqueror, William II., Henry I., 
Richard I., King John, Edward I., Richard II., Richard III., 
James L, William III., and George I., have the lion strongly 
marked in their countenances ; while nearly all the rest have 
a wonderful resemblance to oxen. We have examples also of 
likenesses to the lion in the persons and characters of Mary 
Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell, and Prince George. Rob- 
ert Boyle is another of the same class. 



98 



COMPAEATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY, 



CHAPTER III 




Puss, with her nose in a pan of milk, is called Trollop ; 
but it is impossible to say that it is on account of her likeness 

to Madame T , whose portrait is here presented. There 

is no doubt but that the " milk 
of human kindness" is as grate- 
ful to the one as milk is to the 
other, and the two appetites gen- 
erally go together. The cat is 
remarkably fond of both, though 
a little at a time satisfies. She 
relishes petting and fondling ve- 
ry highly, but is soon satisfied, 
and then " no more play." — " Too 
much of a good thing" she stu- 
diously avoids ; and, if you ob- 
serve, you will see that she acts upon the principle of " not 
casting her pearls before swine." She is very nice and \erj 
particular, and when things do not go to suit her she is a per- 
fect virago — of which we have a fine sample o' nights, when 
she may be supposed to be engaged in giving curtain-lectures 
to her spouse, or having a dispute with her neighbors. You 
would not think, to see her so quietly sleeping the next morn- 
ing, that she had been playing the termagant so fiercely. The 
wonder is, that after such serious difficulties she could get to 
bed and sleep so sweetly, and look the next day such a per- 
fect picture of amiability and contentment. Should any one 
call her a "spit-fire," you would declare it to be slander; but 
wait, and presently you shall see for yourself. 

But it is very wonderful how the cat can have such a sweet, 
amiable, loving countenance, when her disposition is the very 



THE CAT. 



opposite of that. No — you must not exaggerate her faults: 
she has affection and forbearance as well as cruelty and slan- 
der. Besides, it may be said in extenuation, that her quarrel- 
some disposition is connected with great love of neatness, for 
the simple reason that she is "put out" when things are in 
disorder, especially when her choler is ruffled, or any part of 
her dress is disarranged. The effort to set things to rights 
disturbs them all the more ; and this is an excuse for still 
more scolding, pulling hair, scratching, screaming, spitting, 
chasing, and all that. Very amiable this ! but we shall come 
at the amiability by-and-by. 

It should be known that those who spend several hours a 
day in dressing, preparatory to placing themselves on a cush- 
ion, or some elevation where they may be seen, are generally 
pleasant in society, but in private life ill-tempered and ill- 
tongued. The cat and those who resemble her are no excep- 
tions to this general rule. 

But allowing that the cat has a great deal of softness, quiet, 
love of repose, contentment, love of children, love of kind 
treatment, and love of milk, how is it that these are so much 
more observable in her face than the opposite traits? The 
reason is this : the cat has a wonderful degree of affectation. 
She can assume a charac- 
ter that does not belong to 



her; or, rather, she can 
wear the semblance of it, 
and that is often mistaken 
for the thing itself. Who 
would doubt, on looking 
at this individual, of his 
ability to dissemble ? He 
looks like a cat, and may 
be placed in the order of 
lynxes. The same facul- 
ty which induces dissem- 
bling gives the power of 
''acting" or of " play-act- 
ing" (whichever term we may choose to employ). 




The cat is 



30 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




remarkably fond of play ; and as play is the opposite of " sober 
earnest," it takes Affectation into its service, aud changes the 
deceiver into a comedian. A playful cat is an honest puss, 
while a demure one is deceitful, treacherous, cruel. Playful- 
ness is associated with innocence, as it is in children ; and it 
is not till " sober age comes hastening on," that human beings 
are tempted strongly to play the hypocrite. When children 
do so they are not playful, they are not happy ; and examples 
of " juvenile depravity" are of those that are gloomy, morose, 
and inclined to disturb rather than to assist in the plays of 
other children. Here, then, are the moral advantages of 
play — the advantages of such theatricals as children engage 
in, and of public theatricals, if they are what Nature designed 
them to be. When play itself is an affectation, then the 
players are deceivers, and the acting is deception ; their in- 
nocence is lost; and, being themselves corrupt, they do all 
they can to encourage corruption in others, and to corrupt the 
morals of the good and pure. 

The reader hardly need be told that the cat is sly. It is 
her nature to take by surprise — she lives by it, and therefore 
she surprises you in everything. It makes her veiy soft and 
quiet in her manners, and this, if we would understand her 
character, must be distinguished from gentleness. If she had 
gentleness, she would enjoy her nights undisturbed by brick- 
bats ; and in that case, if all people were like her, " midnight 
outcries and alarms" would cease for ever. It fa verv hard 



THE CAT. 31 

for those who resemble cats to be gentle, and for the same 
reason it is next to impossible for tr em to be gentlemen. Be- 
tween them and gentlemen there is as great an antagonism 
as between cats and dogs. 

But we were speaking of slyness. The cat enters a room so 
slyly, that you are not aware of it until she is near you ; and 
she withdraws without your knowledge, so that you are sur- 
prised at her absence. You feel something rubbing gently 
against your leg : it is " Miss Puss," come to soothe the whirl- 
wind of passion that she has excited against herself the night 
previous, and to say : "There, don't be angry — you see how 
I can be quiet ; let us now make up, and I will lie in your 
arms, and purr you to sleep !" Slyness, therefore, in the cat, 
is a good thing. It goes out entirely when she is angry, and 
after a while it comes to drive anger away. Without it, how 
would quarrelsome people get over their difficulties, and look 
more bright, smiling, and affectionate, than ever? 

People who entertain a large number of cats, and therefore 
look like them, steal upon you unawares, whether they intend 
it or not, and they depart as slyly as they came. But they 
also meditate surprises — sometimes of an agreeable nature, 
and sometimes of a disagreeable — for the sake either of en- 
hancing the pleasure of others, or of exciting alarm. As the 
cat catches a mouse by surprise when it fancies itself enjoying 
its full of liberty in the bounties and luxuries that surround it, 
and lets it go that it may be again deceived — so does the in- 
dividual who resembles a cat delight to disabuse people oi 
their halcyon enjoyments, and to catch them "just as they 
are," in the midst of their domestic disorder, or comfort, as 
the case may be. The people they like to come in upon are 
those "undisturbed" — at their ease — "not dressed to be 
seen." Slyness, therefore, plays into the hands of Cruelty, 
and is exercised along with dissembling; but in this case 
there is no anger; it is destructiveness in cold blood, and 
meditated hypocrisy. 

On the following page is a portrait of Cortez, and it is seen 
to resemble a puma. A formidable cat this to pounce down 
*xpon the mice whose portraits are sculptured on the monu 



32 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



ments of Central America, and represented in the "Aztec 
children !" Now, gentle reader, do not deprive us of the 

pleasure of describing to you 
the resemblance between the 
Aztecs and mice, which ani- 
mals we reserve for another 
chapter. Pray, take your 
mind from that subject, and 
trace the feline qualities a 
bit further. Of all animals, 
cats are the most savage : 
the faculties that make them 
so are love of triumph, con- 
test, hurling, and resistance. 
Savage and bloody men have the signs of these faculties very 
large, in consequence of which they have a resemblance to 
pumas, tigers, leopards, panthers, and wild-cats. "Warriors 





make special use of the faculty of hurling ; and their cheek- 
bones are wide, like those of cats, indicating the strength of 
this faculty. Storms and tempests, with lightning and thun- 
der, are imitated by warriors on the battle-field, and by cats 
in spitting fire at each other, and uttering all sorts of strange, 
unearthly, and portentous sounds. They exhibit gusts, whirl 
winds, and a tempest of passion ; and the place for these ex- 
hibitions is the top of the house, as near the clouds as possible : 
and seeing them there, their looks and motions may remind 



THE CAT. 33 

you of streaks of lightning. The cat is excited by correspond- 
ing things in nature, for the worst performances of- this kind 
we have observed to be when — 

" The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed ; 

Loud, deep, and long, the thunder bellowed ; 

When e'en a child might understand 

The de'il had business on his hand." 

To do justice to our subject, we must mention that the cat 
and those like her have great parentiveness. Who has not 
witnessed the tender care of the cat for her kittens, in select- 
ing a place, in providing food, in comforting them, and in 
carrying them in her mouth from a place of danger to one of 
safety ? Who has not witnessed her love for children, her for- 
bearance toward them — as well as learning her kittens to 
mouse, and, when they come to years of discretion, teaching 
them propriety and good behavior by an occasional box on 
the ear? She is, indeed, very affectionate; and when her 
tempests of passion are over, she is as warm, and sunny, and 
6erene, as the atmosphere and sky after a thunder-shower. It 
is truly so with those who resemble cats : occasional outbursts 
purify their spirits from the unhealthiness that is engendered 
by quietude and stagnation, and their enjoyments are en- 
hanced by contrasts all their lives long. Especially are they 
so tenderly attached to children, that even half the domestic 
feuds are controversies respecting the modes of bringing them 
up and giving them the advantages of education, polish, and 
refinement. 

Fondness for children, an aptitude to teach, and the other 
dispositions of the cat, are the component parts of that variety 
of the genus homo called the " schoolmaster," and his resem- 
blance to the cat in the external is susceptible of ocular dem- 
onstration. There is something feline in his appearance as a 
whole, and in everything he says and does. He requires the 
pupils to be " still as mice," and watches them slyly, while 
the pupils of his eyes wander about in every possible corner. 
He takes the cat for his model in everything. She says to 
her kittens : " You may be allowed to play with my tail, 
which is the pleasantest thing you can do ; but, if you do 

3 



34 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



thus and so, I shall punish you I" This is the perfect model 
of instruction, aimed at, at home and at school, but requiring 
a knowledge of human nature for its application. The Prus- 
sians resemble cats — some one kind 
and some another. They care more 
for children than other nations do, and 
have the best system of education in 
the world. Annexed 
is the portrait of Fred- 
erick the Great, and 
by his side that of the 
ounce, which he is seen 
very much to resem- 
ble. His prominent 
traits are the same that have been 
mentioned as constituting a likeness to the cat ; but the ounce 
is the noblest of the cat-kind, and a worthy representative of 
so great a man. In our category of cats, the lion is not in- 
cluded. 





THE EAGLT&- 



35 



CHAPTER IY. 

The " king of beasts" and the " king of birds" are charac- 
ters fitted to represent royalty in the human race. Who can 
look upon this portrait of Maximilian without admiration, con- 
nected with the impression of its kingly attributes, and of its 




resemblance to the eagle in those qualities which constitute 
royalty ? Although this is a kingly countenance, it is very 
different from that which resembles the lion ; but the differ- 
ence is merely that which exists between birds and beasts — 
or, if it will make our idea plainer, the one may be called a 
lion-bird and the other an eagle-beast. In our estimation the 
eagle-countenance is more noble — it is more intellectual — 
it has more of greatness — more of that something godlike 
which we discover in the " bird of Jove." He looks down, 
not in humility, nor yet in pride, but because his eyry is on 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 







high, and he was born to soar above the clouds, and to look 
on things below as little and insignificant. There is scorn of 
meanness in his look, but no arrogance ; that noble counte- 
nance belies a sneer; he has no ambition to soar higher and 
to explore more lands than others, for his superiority stands 
confessed. Envy may rankle in others, but in him it is sub- 
ordinate ; and those whom he takes in his talons and " drops 
on Fortune's hill," may feel contempt for and sneer at those 
below them. 

In this last remark we have hit upon a class of persons who 
resemble owls. In the formation of certain individuals, Na- 
ture seems to have had an eye to the 
preceding, but to have fallen just so 
far short as she falls short of creating 
an eagle when she makes an owl! 
They may be referred directly to 
" chaos and old night" for their ori- 
gin. The nocturnal influences over- 
shadow and rest down upon them, 
and their souls are filled with howl- 
ets, gloomy forests, deserted castles, 
haunted steeples, and graveyards ! 
They see only by moonlight ; and if 
love ever enters their hearts, and they 
essay to express it in sounds of affection, accompanied by a 
guitar, at that witching time of night to which their nature 
and sentiment incline them, all nature should be hushed, and 
there could be nothing more appropriate than the injunction — 

" Silence, ye cats, while Ralph to Cynthia yowls, 
And makes night hideous — answer him, ye owls!" 

Envy and Jealousy are birds of night, and are associated 
with love, and with every other faculty, in owls and in those 
persons of whom this bird is the most suitable representative. 
Such people have also in their faces very large ostentation and 
love of eminence, the latter being converted by the former 
into a perpetual sneer. From envy and jealousy, with sub- 
terfuge and the love of contest, are begotten detraction, and 




THE OWL. 



37 



robbery, and other things, for which the patroness Diana is 
to be held responsible. Subterfuges are delicate morsels to 
those who resemble owls, as moles and mice are to owls them- 





selves ; and ofttimes these gnawing, un- 
dermining, burrowing, mischief-making 

little gnomes are elevated on the wings of paltry ambition 
in the endeavor to outsoar the eagle. As bats and vampires 
flit' through the air in the darkness, and impart a spirit-fire to 
the owl, so these spirits of the shades flit through the minds of 
the owlish, and are the nectar and ambrosia that make them 
fancy they are gods. 

Strange things happen sometimes, as when Subterfuge be- 
comes ambitious. Then the cunning and artifice of the cat 
are owlish, and are exhibited in sublime humbuggery — in 
fortune-telling, sorcery, magic, and the like ; in other words, 
the cat is turned into an owl. The ogling and staring which 
are so characteristic of the owl, are no less conspicuous in 
those who resemble him. The trait exhibits itself in a love 
of raree-shows, and inclines its possessors to the profession of 
showmen. They take it for granted that what they themselves 
are most fond of, there must be a demand for ; and thus they 
"kill two birds with one stone" — stare all the time at won- 
derful sights, which they are exceedingly fond of doing, and 



38 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



make money by exhibiting to others. The men who provide 
these things they consider the greatest curiosities of all, and 
are confident of being so regarded by the community. They 
have no idea of people being so stupid as not to appreciate 
them. Their self-complacency, therefore, grows to something 
very decided in the expression of the face. 





The owl has dignity — he has no notion of being put out of 
countenance. He fancies that all the birds of the forest have 
come to see him, when in reality they have come to pick at 
him : therefore he stands stock still, like a wax figure, as 
highly gratified at being looked at as in looking. He sets the 
example of " mute astonishment," as that which is most be- 
coming to the spectators, interrupted now and then by a hoot 
or a screech, according as the subject is merely wonderful or 
of the nature of something terrific. He exhibits an indiffer- 
ence to the honors that are paid him, for the simple reason 
that Nature compels him to affect the eagle, and has given 
him a vast deal of ostentation. He sits in judgment on oth- 
ers — is the severest, and in his own estimation the wisest, of 
critics. " As wise as an owl" is a proverb that places him on 
a level with Solomon, whose fondness for collecting all the 
strange and wonderful sights in nature and art furnished him 
with knowledge, and made him all the wiser. 

The noble use which is performed by those we are now de 



THE OWL. 



39 




6cribing is the imparting of instruction, by means of illustra- 
tion and example, in whatever is most interesting and impor- 
tant in the arts and sci- 
ences. It is the storing 
up in cabinets and mu- 
seums, and thereby in 
the mind, of historical 
reminiscences, and the 
wonders of the world, 
and the exercising of 
a powerful moral influ- 
enccby the interest and 
sympathy awakened foi 
the inhabitants of other 
climes, and by the me- 
morials of generations 
that are past and gone. 
But what need has any- 
body to be told of this ? This mode of instruction, it is per- 
ceived, is especially juvenile. In those who resemble owls 
there is very great love of children, as there is also in those 
who resemble cats ; and this love is connected with the desire 
and the ability to teach. 

The most easy and impressive manner comes, as a matter 
of course, from that juvenile love of exhibition and wonder- 
ment that has been already described. The love of surprise 
in this case is not gratified by falsehood, but by knowledge — ■ 
not by the hallucinations of the mind, but by the evidence of 
the senses ; and thus the love of truth is cultivated, and with 
it the love of nature and the love of man, and every good 
and noble sentiment in the human breast. In our view, there 
is no picture of tender, earnest, devoted parental affection 
equal to that of an owl caring for her young, if the represen- 
tations we have seen be true, as we doubt not that they are. 
5Tet the notion which most people have of the owl would 
cause them to pass these pictures by without appreciation or 
sympathy. They suffer the worse features of the bird to 
eclipse this shining quality (maternal love), and they conceive 



40 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



that the appearance of it is either a burlesque on something 
touching or sentimental (all the more ridiculous for its at- 
tempting to elicit a 
feeling in the beholder 
which has no existence 
in the object), or else 
that there is no truth 
in physiognomy. But 
however the cat and 
the owl may deceive 
in other things, they 
do not deceive in this 
— and just that beau- 
tiful love of children 
which is by them ex- 
pressed is exhibited by 
those who resemble 
them, more especially 
if their peculiarities are turned into the highest channel, and 
aubserve the noble ends which Nature designed. 




THE RHINOCEROS. 



41 



CHAPTEE V. 



Insensibility is Sensibility in the lowest degree. Knock 
him on the head, pinch his tail, beat him about the body, and 
he will show no signs of being hurt. But take care that you 
do not serve Sensibility 
in this way, which is the 
way to reduce it to the 
condition of its negative 
and to make the shell 
of Insensibility thicker 
than at first. There is 
such a thing as treating 
a rhinoceros tenderly : 
but truth demands that 
we should show what 
stuff he is made of. If 
it seems to thee, gentle 
reader, that we treat 
some of our subjects too 
plainly, remember that 
sensation is pleasant to 
all animals ; and that 
the degree that is awa- 
kened by a touch in 

some, is only awakened by a blow in those that are protected 
by a shell. 

In the rhinoceros, feeling is kept under. As hardness is the 
summum bonum of a mere animal existence, he has a happy 
life of it. He may be considered to have attained, very nearly, 
to the full stature of a perfect beast ! But before we can come 
to a conclusion in regard to him, we must comprehend his 
two essential qualities, insensibility and appetite. 




& 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




Insensibility, it should be observed, has a partiality lor the 
tail. In fact, Nature has provided this posterior appendage 
expressly for its accommodation. This is fully illustrated in 
the alligator, not to mention the similar animals that are now 
extinct. Insensibility is nearly synonymous with stupidity, 
and oblivion is the bliss which it longs for, and to which it 
finally attains. People who believe in annihilation resemble 



THE RHINOCEROS. 



43 



animals with very long tails, with the exception of this latter 
appurtenance. Tails are peculiar to animals — are worn as 
badges of honor in the order of beasthood. They are in many 
instances more or less scaly when the body is not at all so, as 
we see in the mouse, the opossum, and the beaver ; and the 
habit of the lemur, of gnawing off the end of his tail, shows 
that very little sensibility resides there. It shows also that 
there is an antagonism between Appetite and Insensibility. 
But the latter in beasts is superior to the former. Insensibility 
lords it over a wide domain. When he would show his power, 
he makes an extensive sweep, as may be observed in the use 
which animals make of their tails when they are enraged. 
He holds the supremacy over every passion, and " blind rage" 
is no more blind than he. 




But, like all other sovereigns, he is dependent on his vas- 
sals. Appetite is his principal servant. He is supplied with 
the grossness that is essential to his existence through the de- 
mands of Appetite, which himself is obliged to supply. Thus 
the alligator sweeps his prey into his mouth with his tail ; and 
the brandishing of the tails of lions, tigers, &c, is from the 
same cause. It is the mighty lord Insensibility that sways 



4A COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

this sceptre of power— turning living bodies into dead carcas- 
ses, flourishing it about the body to keep his vassals in fear, 
and extending it over the head to keep his principal servant 
in subjection. 

Thus much of Insensibility. We come now to speak of Ap- 
petite. It resides as far as possible from its lord and master^ 
for it is the very opposite. Of course, then, it occupies the 
head, and has the same relation to the anterior extremities 




that the other has to the posterior. Appetite is essential at- 
tractiveness, drawing everything into relation and conjunction 
with Sensibility. It refines and softens the skin as much as 
Insensibility hardens it, and does always the very reverse of 
what its master does. It begets Sensibility, which feels in- 
tensely, suffers pain, and is carried to the degree of torment. 
Who, if he has not felt it, has not heard, of the feeling of 
hunger and of tormenting thirst ? Appetite, therefore, is the 
very opposite of Insensibility, and, to indicate this, is assigned 
to an opposite position in the body. 

When Appetite grows strong, it dispenses with Insensibility 
altogether. It makes use of teeth, tongue, claws, &c, to sur- 
prise its food, and tosses up its head in perfect contempt of 
the pretensions of its former lord. It grows bold, saucy, and 



THE RHINOCEROS. 



45 



independent, and says of the tail, that it is " no great shakes, 
after all !" The consequence of this is, that it turns out as 
Appetite says : Insensibility is obliged to withdraw from the 
tail into the body, that he may receive a portion of the nour- 
ishment that Appetite would otherwise appropriate entirely to 
its own use. He reasons, with regard to the state of the case, 
by the method called a posteriori. He considers himself the 
rightful sovereign; and though he does what he can to con- 
ciliate Appetite, he has no notion of consenting to a rebellion. 




He makes a virtue of necessity, and becomes on familiar terms 
with the servants that he was formerly in the habit of chas- 
tising. He lets down his dignity wonderfully — deserts the 
tail, which, " like a pile without inhabitant, to ruin runs," and 
takes up his residence in the back. 

But the less of a gentleman he becomes, the more selfish is 



4<i COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

he. lie converts the body into a fortification ; he builds on 
a larger scale, and in a style of greater magnificence, than 
before — a sure index of his waning fortunes. He is swayed 
by fear, and what he does is an indication of it ; he substitutes 
grasping cupidity for the title of sovereign in just the degree 
that his sceptre is in danger of being wrested from him ; he 
parts with his courage and magnanimity as a prince with his 
sceptre and his crown. Fear draws him into close commu- 
nion with Appetite, and enlarges headquarters for his recep- 
tion. Finally, he becomes the very slave of Appetite, and 
takes up his residence in the head, which is gradually enlarged 
for his accommodation. When this is the case, we may as- 
certain it by the fact that there is no tail left. He may be 
called, first and last, Endurance, because, as he suffers noth- 
ing, he suffers anything you please. He is the common 
ground for all sorts of impressions : he is at first the pave- 
ment, then the stepping-stone, then the marble hall to the 
palace of the soul ; and finally he is the luxurious carpet, upon 
which, though there is less danger, men tread more softly 
than on stones. What we have described is Endurance, indi- 
cated by the brain and nerves of sensation, upon some of 
which impressions are made more lightly than on others. 

We are now prepared to speak more particularly of the 
rhinoceros. Insensibility has lost all dignity in him. You 
see by his looks that he is supremely selfish, and that Insen- 
sibility in him would sacrifice pride rather than the services 
of Appetite. By remaining in the tail when the servant was 
likely to become independent of his master, the latter would 
vacate entirely, and the whole animal economy would be de- 
stroyed. Here master and servant dwell peaceably together, 
in the back and head, surrounded by the tokens of unbounded 
prosperity ; while the tail hangs idly, having been resigned 
for things more substantial and enduring. 

The condition of the rhinoceros, for a beast, is truly a happy 
one. The means of subsistence are before him, but never a 
great way off. Not so with those animals that have a pre- 
dominance of insensibility in the tail, as the alligator, or that 
have a predominance of laziness, like the bear. " Proud and 



THE RHINOCEROS. 47 

lazy" is an epithet that can not be applied to the rhinoceros. 
Insensibility keeps such good pace with Appetite, that his 
food is always under his nose. He is ever reaching forth for 
the supreme good — the gratification of Appetite, and the clo- 
sing up of the avenues of Sensation. His belly is therefore 
of the largest dimensions, and is fortified around with shields 
and bucklers, so that the vulnerable part is long in being dis- 
covered. He keeps his servant busily at work in closing the 
avenues outside and in. As he has so much selfishness, it is 
appropriate that he should be formed specially for self-defence. 
The sign of this is the most prominent feature in his counte- 
nance. As S elf-Defence follows Attack, he must invariably, 
in every controversy, have the last word. It is impossible to 
find anything new about him, for he is fortified against en- 
croachment, and is encased in the old. He has but one logic 
for all who dare to assault him, and his last word is always 
the same. He assures you that " facts are stubborn things," 
and the toughness of his hide inclines him to deal in these, 
and makes it impossible that any other should have an im- 
pression upon him. He puts effects for causes, and in going 
forward supposes that he is going backward ; and this he 
dignifies with the name of reasoning ! But this is more the 
case with those who resemble alligators — where Insensibility 
attaches greater dignity to the tail — than in him. What you 
attack in the rhinoceros is " cut and dried." It has stood the 
test of time and of innumerable assaults, and why should he 
change it? He knows how to give you mathematical demon- 
strations, for it is his business to fortify himself. This is his 
fort, and he applies it to the erection of defences against all 
who war with him, whether the weapons be spiritual or car- 
nal. It is against the possibility of an attack that he fortifies 
himself, and he is therefore impregnable. He is prejudiced : 
what can you do with him ? His motto is, " In peace prepare 
for war, that no enemy may be tempted by your weakness to 
pounce upon you !" This is the dictate of fear, and also of 
Insensibility, when there is no danger to be apprehended. 
But when it shows no fear of reason, and takes reason for its 
counsellor, it serves a noble use. 



48 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



The man who resembles the rhinoceros is either one of the 
wisest or the most senseless of individuals. Look at that counte- 
nance, and say if it is not destitute of Sen- 
sibility. Was there ever anything so stu- 
pid ? You may anticipate the time when, 
like the hog, he will testify his content- 





ment with a grunt. But let us turn from this example of the 
brute creation to another that is very like him, and yet in a 
certain sense the very opposite. 



TBB ELEPHANT 



49 



CHAPTER VI. 




"What executioner is this, come to wield his monstrous lash, 
more effective than the club of Hercules ? He is inclined to 

try the stability of those 
mathematical certainties 
which the rhinoceros 
puts his trust in — to feel 
the ground upon which 
he treads, and to make 
impressions on defences 
that bid defiance to at- 
tack. Everything about 
him is formed to be the 
counterpart of that which 
is discovered in the rhi- 
noceros. That trunk of his, which is the only thing of the 
kind in existence, is curiously and wonderfully made. It is 
a maul unparalleled, 
and has at its end an 
instrument for pinch- 
ing, so that it is suita- 
ble to the execution of 
every sentence. 'He 
punishes both great 
and minor offences, 
with an exactness of 
justice that is truly 
admirable. As he is 
physically suited to 
carry it into execu- 
tion, so his belief is — 




Ml 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY 



11 That when a man is past his sense, 
The method to reduce him thence 
Is twinging by the ears and nose, 
Or laying on of heavy blows." 

He has the feeling that he is formed to be an executioner. 
When the sentence has gone forth, it is never revoked. The 
punishment must come if ever the opportunity offers ; his 
duty must be discharged. In the East, he is chosen to exe- 
cute the laws. There is no variety of execution short of in- 
fernal that he is not prepared to inflict. The man who is so 

wanting in Sensibili- 
ty as to play a hoax 
upon the elephant, 
will have it dinged 
into him by the ele- 
phant's trunk if ever 
he comes within the 
reach of that flexible 
instrument. By "the 
elephant," be it un- 
derstood, we mean 
the man who resem- 
bles the elephant,and 
by " the rhinoceros" the man who resembles the rhinoceros. 

The animal we are now speaking of may be styled the " Ex- 
ecutive." He is the very 
embodiment of "physical 
force." As the rhinoceros 
represents Endurance, so 
does the elephant represent 
Effectiveness. Like an im- 
mense water-wheel, he rolls, 
and tumbles, and pours the 
water over him ; and the an- 
imus which he applies, or 
the motive-power, is like wa- 
ter tumbling over a precipice, to which his forehead and de- 
scending trunk bear a close resemblance. His countenance 





THE ELEPHANT. 



51 



is all dripping, and seems to invite a torrent of water to be 
poured over it. His whole body is like a sea, with its ebb 
and flow, and moving forward with a slow current to its out- 
let, where the mighty force of descent invites to the demon- 
stration of the principle that " knowledge is power." He is 
the wisest of the brute creation, for physical force should be 
governed by intellectual, to which it corresponds. He rep- 
resents all things mighty — the water-power, the ponderous 
wheel, and the whole machinery through which power over- 
comes a resistance equal to itself in the production of the 
most wonderful results. 

As there is in the rhinoceros that which involves the prin- 
ciples of mathematics, so there is in the elephant that which 
involves the principles of mechanics ; and as Nature illus- 
trates these principles in the animal economy of both, so Art, 
in those who resemble the rhinoceros and the elephant, ap- 
plies them to the demonstration of the laws which govern the 
material creation, and to the production of machinery. As- 
tronomy is the result of the one, and wheels and their compli- 
cated revolutions are the result of the other. The Effective- 
ness that resides in the human frame is still greater in the 
instrument that man produces. There is a resemblance to 
the elephant, not only in those who make an extensive appli- 
cation of machinery, but in those who invent it. 
The inferior class who 
bear this resemblance, 
are suited physically to 
perform the function of 
executioners, and to be 
the instruments of pow- 
er. The stoutest labor- 
ers — in size, form, mo- 
tions, and expressions 
of the countenance — 
resemble the elephant. 
This is so with hercule- 
an negroes particularly, 
and they have been re- 



^^^>v 







52 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



garied as the executors and as the labor-saving machinery 
of the world from time immemorial. This is doubtless in 
some degree a perversion of the grand principle which they 
illustrate, but it shows an instinctive recognition of this resem- 
blance, not only in those who make a slave of the negro, but 
in the negro himself. There is something peculiarly noble, 
dutiful, and trustworthy, in the features of the " black fellow" 
who bears this resemblance — rude when caught, and yet 
beautiful from his adaptation to his various uses. 




The elephant exhibits this beauty of adaptation the very 
day that he is captured ; he takes to service almost imme 
diately, which can be said of no other animal. His suscepti- 
bility of improvement is uncommonly great. This is true of 
the African, and hence he is capable of attaining to the high- 
est condition morally and intellectually, the correspondent of 
which is the lowest physical condition when the former and 
the latter are not united. But his development is exceed- 
ingly slow, as is also that of the elephant. 

The negro presented in the first of these chapters is a mere 
babe. Precocity in the human family, although highly flat- 
tered, is less to be desired than the tardy development of the 
negro. Every one may judge what the difference will be in 



THE ELEPHANT. 



53 



the final result. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has some fine 
remarks on this subject, in her popular work entitled " Uncle 
Tom's Cabin, or Life among the Lowly," which it would be 
superfluous to quote, since it must 
be taken for granted that every- 
body has read them. The features 
which resemble the elephant are 
characteristic of childhood, as in 
this and the preceding examples. 





There is also characteristic child- 
hood in a child like this, who is 
exceedingly fond of a ride on the 
elephant's back, and whose fea- 
tures are seen to bear a striking 
resemblance to the profile of that 
animal. It must be confessed, too, 

that he has reason to be grateful for affection on the part of 
his bearer, for they are congenial spirits. In the negro-looking 
female who stands above, we can hardly fail to see that the 
features are elephantine, and to ascribe to her all the docility, 
faithfulness, caution, substitution, and love of children, that 
are characteristic of the elephant. 

The African may be called deformed and monstrous, like 
the elephant • but there is an old proverb which says, " Home- 



54: COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

ly in the cradle, handsome in the saddle." Besides this, the 
highest beauty is the result of the highest use, and is founded 
on the lowest. In his adaptation to the lowest, which is that 
of a dutiful child, the African is still handsome : — 

" his mother's eye, 



That looks upon him from his parent sky, 
Sees in his flexile limbs untutored grace, 
Power in his forehead, beauty in his face." 

This beauty is latent in him, and will be developed. It should 
be observed, however, that certain negro races do not resem- 
ble elephants, and these in market value are good for nothing 
except to play the banjo, and exhibit white collars and pocket 
handkerchiefs : but we shall speak of these in another chap- 
ter. 



THE OSTRICH. 65 



CHAPTER YII. 

"What a man loves, he generally is : hence he is gerx»ally 
himself, for it is himself that he loves. Self-love is the most 
natural solution of the fact that the animal a man most likes 
he most resembles. The man who resembles the ostrich has 
more of the spirit which says, "I'm myself," than the gener- 
ality of mankind. It is the staring, wondering owl that says, 
"Who? who?" and provokes the response just alluded to. 
In children, who are more spontaneous than grown people, 
question and answer of this sort are expressed literally. The 
one that says, "I'm myself," is a young ostrich, and prom- 
ises to resemble that bird more and more. There is pro- 
gressively developed in him a spirit of independence that is 
truly noble. He throws off infantile weakness rapidly, and 
relieves his parents of the responsibility of taking care of him. 
This is one of the characteristic things in which he resembles 
the ostrich. His appetite for knowledge, his power of mas- 
tering stubborn truths and of appropriating the results to the 
development of his own mind, and the possession thereby of 
an uncommon degree of strength and maturity, correspond to 
the appetite, powerful digestion, and wonderful hardiness and 
strength of the desert-bird. He has an abundance of self- 
love ; but his love of liberty, in raising him above dependence, 
elevates him above the lower gratifications of selfishness, and 
he exhibits a high-mindedness that is truly admirable. 

Be it observed, however, that the resemblance to the ostrich 
may be too literal. In that case the individual is weak-minded, 
foolish, self-conceited, light-headed, and likes to be odd, at 
the same time that he " asks no odds" of any one, prides him- 
self upon his originality (which is mere oddity), and reasons 
in a circle from one end of a single idea to the other, as the 



56 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



ostrich runs when pursued by a horse. He is a sort of math- 
ematical reasoner, considering that if by any means he can 

return " to the place of beginning," 
the thing is "proved." In other 
words, he is a sort of transcendental 
rhinoceros, for whoever resembles 





the one animal has a certain resemblance to the other. It 
may be mentioned at the same time that the relationship be- 
tween the lion and the eagle, and the cat and the owl, causes 
that the person who resembles the beast should resemble also 
the bird, and vice versa. 

But the ostrich, and the man who resembles him too liter- 
ally? — A horse, unaided by the cunning and prudence of the 
rider, can no more overtake the one, than reason can overtake 
the other. The sandy desert which you will have to traverse, 
if you follow in his footsteps, will not furnish you with a single 



THE OSTRICH. 



57 



oasis to gladden the eye or to refresh the exhausted spirits. 
Water there is none, but only a vast sea of sand ; and instead 
of genial warmth, there is burning heat, that withers every 
verdant thing, and destroys the life. If this strange bird can 
live there, others can not, and it is because he is adapted to a 
situation that to others would be a " place of torment." 

Most persons can tell you without much hesitation what 
animal they are most fond of, but this is not so with the person 
who resembles the ostrich. He never saw the animal that 





he had any particular liking foi 
and the truth is, he has no par- 
ticular liking for any. The rea- 
son is, he has never had the opportunity of making a pet of 
the animal he most resembles. He is minus also the love of 
children to the degree that he has no disposition to pet and 
fondle them. As he has no idea of leaning upon parents and 
being a burden to them, so he expects that children will take 
care of themselves, and relieves himself of responsibility con- 
cerning his own. As he has no opportunity to love the ani- 
mal he is like, he loves it in himself, and the definition of 
this is — 

"he loves himself so much, 

He owes all others else a grutch !" 

On the contrary, the person who is like a horse, a cow, a cat, 
or a dog, or any familiar animal, is fond of creatures of all 
sorts. The gratification of a predominant affection opens a 
channel for the exercise of other affections of the same nature. 
Thus it is necessary that conjugal love should be awakened, 
in order that the domestic and social affections should be fully 



58 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

developed ; and that a man should love the animal he most 
resembles, in order that he may exercise love and compassion 
toward animals in general. The fondness for animals, like 
that for human beings, is founded upon a partiality for one. 
As the love of God is the love of one, the love of mankind is 
founded upon that. 

The animal nature of which the ostrich is an embodiment 
forms the groundwork of a character as exalted as the founda- 
tion is low, and as chaste and beautiful as the basis is coarse 
and strong. In nature and art the barren rudeness and ugli- 
ness of the foundation are in proportion to the perfection of the 
design. The most beautiful temple is reared upon the un- 
sightliest and most rugged rock. The hardest material is 
formed for the most exquisite finish. Its roughness and de- 
formity give place to symmetry and proportion ; its rigidity 
is changed to the appearance of softness. The most solid 
substance becomes spiritual, and thereby yielding ; the shape- 
less mass acquires the highest degree of individuality; it be- 
comes ethereal by the flow of life and beauty that surrounds 
it; it is an embodiment of the sublimest conception — an im- 
age of the Divine. 

The stubborn hardness of the substances which the ostrich 
takes into his stomach, and the more obstinate stomach that 
resists and overcomes them, correspond to facts the most diffi- 
cult of solution, and to a mind capable of grasping and resolv- 
ing them. The barren sand traversed by the ostrich, and the 
vain effort at progress (the running around and returning to 
the same place, which makes it impossible ever to escape, 
either from the desert or the enemy that pursues him), corre- 
spond to universal truths which in the process of reason are 
never to be lost sight of, and to the true order of reasoning, 
which, as it follows Nature, is in a circle — but in a circle 
that is progressive, being that of "end, cause, and effect." 
We see, therefore, what connection there is between folly and 
wisdom, silliness and simplicity, and consequently what con- 
nection there is between pride and selfishness on the one hand 
and respectability and usefulness on the other. The indepen- 
dence of care and protection, and the consequent deficiency 



THE OSTRICH. 



5tf 



of these in the ostrich, correspond to the independence which 
seeks to increase itself by establishing a commerce of freedom, 
and to the consequent kind- 
ness and protection which 
relieve the dependence of 
others, and enable them to 
confer independence in their 





turn. The self-sufficiency or proud independence of the bird 
corresponds to the humble Sufficiency which acknowledges 
Mutual Dependence for its father. From this action of Inde- 
pendence proceed the most admirable relations of parents and 
children, and of society at large. The most perfect order and 
harmony are the result of the rudimentary traits which con- 
stitute a resemblance to the ostrich, or of the highest degree 
of improvement which these qualities are capable of. The 
Swedes, as a nation, bear a resemblance to the ostrich, as a 
comparison of faces and of the characteristics mentioned above 
will show. 



$0 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




CHAPTEK VIII. 

The distinction between matter and space will explain the 
difference between beasts and birds. It would seem at firft 
glance as if the elephant and the stork were altogether dis- 
similar, but the difference between them is 
as the difference between size and distance. 
In everything relating to measurement, the 
stork is a model of perfection. There is no 
part of his body in which length is disre- 
garded ; consequently his proportions are 
faultless. His appearance may remind us 
of something awkward and ungainly, but it 
is not in him. His gait is easy and graceful, and it is asso- 
ciation of ideas that reminds us of the opposite. In our dis- 
position to find in him something to laugh at, is illustrated 
the saying that " there is but one step from the sublime to 
the ridiculous.' , His height is contrasted with the low, and 
instantly we think of littleness and insignificance being ele- 
vated upon stilts, for contrast is the very essence of the ab- 
surd. If we observe the length of his bill, the contemptible 
idea of a noddle which is suggested by the height to which 
his extremities elevate him will pass over to the flamingo, the 
crane, the ostrich, and birds of that ilk, whose heads are little 
in proportion to their height. A head whose lightness elevates 
it among the clouds is ridiculous in the extreme. 

The class of persons who, on account of the length of their 
limbs, are compared to cranes, are many of them exceedingly 
graceful, and these resemble storks ; while the remainder have 
greater length in particular portions of their limbs than they 
can well dispose of. Their not knowing what to do with their 
hands and feet is connected with a shortness of nose, chin, or 



THE STOKE. 



61 



other features of the countenance. Proportions being depen- 
dent upon length are looked for in connection with it, and by- 
length want of proportion is rendered conspicuous. The man 
who resembles the stork is suspected of being awkward and 




ungainly when he is not so ; and if the suspicion prove true, 
even in the least degree, he is poked fun at. For the reason 
that there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, 
it is a dangerous step for a man to grow tall, particularly if it 
be a hasty one, as is frequently the case between the ages of 
fifteen and twenty. For the same reason it is dangerous to 
aspire to an elevation in rank. A high position is one which 
commands criticism quite as much as respect ; and perfect 
consistency, or truth, is looked for in this case as perfect pro- 
portion is looked for in the other. The man whom Nature 
makes tall, and at the same time harmonious, has nothing to 
fear. Like the stork, he will outlive ridicule. He is not born 
to be idle — he must vindicate himself — and should be reck- 
oned among those things that are " comely in going." His 
talent is discovery, not invention — observation, not theory. 
In this consists the principal difference between him and the 



62 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



person who resembles tbe ostrich : the one is prone to be odd 
and ridiculous, the other the reverse : — 

«* That lifts a mortal to the skies, 
This calls an angel down." 

Invention proceeds in its development from the earth to the 
heavens ; Discovery from the heavens to the earth. The for- 
mer, with its head among the clouds, is silly and self-conceited, 
or is liable to become so, like the ostrich ; the latter, with its 
high thoughts directed to the earth, is distrustful of appear- 
ances, like the stork : — 

" Who bade the stork, Columbus-like, explore, 
Realms not his own, and seas unknown before ?" 

If he traversed in a circle the little spot where he was born, 
he would find out nothing. As he is a discoverer, it is suita- 




ble that he should be high, where he can look down upon 
those whom he enlightens, and enlighten every object that he 
sees. It is suitable that he should be high, for his matchless 
proportions defy criticism ; and however much we may be 
disposed to ridicule him in his standing position, he inspires 
a sense of sublimity when we see him stretched out in his 
aerial voyage. 



THE STOEK. 



63 



As length is a predominant thing in the stork, he walks 
with measured tread. So does the person who resembles 
him. His life is portioned out to various pursuits, each in its 
season, and he keeps pace and 
time with others, and sets them 
an example of regularity. The 
adjutant is well named, so far as 
marching, or measuring time and 
distance by paces, can make a 





soldier of him. But it should be remarked that tall persons, 
who resemble storks, adjutants, herons, and the like, are defi- 
cient in courage. This essential of a soldier generally falls to 
the lot of short people, and to short, thick-set animals, like the 
bull-dog. The combination of caution, which is characteristic 
of the long, with courage, which is characteristic of the short, 
is exhibited in the military character. The courage of the 
lion, as the lion should be, is mated with the military instinct 
and genius of the stork, and the animal which embodies these 
two in perfect proportion is the horse. 

"Want of courage, in man or animal, induces consumption ; 
and caution, being changed to fear, increases it. The adju- 
tant is a giant-bird, with a formidable jaw, but he is a shame- 
ful coward. If the increase of flesh and fat is not in propor- 
tion to the food taken into the stomach, the food is consumed: 



64 COMPAKATIYE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

it is wasted, and this waste indicates one degree of cowardice, 
and the wasting of the body another. It is the destiny of the 
stork, the flamingo, and the like, and of those who resemble 
them, to grow long and spindling, and consumption is a means 
to that end, whether it be a perversion or not. Stout-hearted 
people are stout built, and hearty appetite and hearty food 
promote their stoutness. But the person who depends upon 
his food and drink to give him courage, or upon any kind of 
narcotic or stimulant to supply his mental deficiencies, be- 
comes intemperate, and wastes in body and mind as he does 
in money and provisions. As there is something natural in 
this (the herons and cranes setting them the example), they 
spin out quite a life of it, after all ! 



THE motjse. 65 



CHAPTER IX. 

Whoever has seen the " Aztec children," whatever may 
have been his speculations respecting them, will jump at the 
idea of their resemblance to mice. The feeling they awaken 
is a compound of repugnance, playfulness, curiosity, and fond- 
ness. But however much, gentle reader, you may feel a dis- 
inclination to touch them, you will be ready to spring upon 
them as the embodiments of a truth, and clasp them to your 
hearts. Besides, if you are capable of seeing beauty in a 
mouse, with his peculiar habits, his confidence, his distrust, 
his audacity, his silken hair, his delicate structure, his active 
temperament, his tiny limbs, his round chest, his little big 
head, his sparkling black eyes, his disproportioned chops, in 
which mischief is concealed under gravity — if you are capa- 
ble of sympathizing in his misfortunes, of desiring to protect 
him, or of a temptation to enlarge him when he has unluckily 
fallen into a trap — then you are capable of seeing beauty in 
the Aztec children, and of feeling an affection for them. You 
will have no disposition to call them fools : they are noodles. 

Their resemblance to mice is in everything they do, and in 
every part from top to toe, but most in the countenance, and 
in those things which it is impossible for the artist to portray. 
The only correct impression that can be made upon them is 
upon the retina : a second-hand solar impression, like the da- 
guerreotype, will never do. In the proportions of the jaws, 
in the peculiar form and expression of the mouth, in that nose, 
so full of fire, energy, and comicality, and in a certain some- 
thing diffused over all so like what we discover in the mouse, 
we can not fail to see a wonderful relation between the two. 
From such lips as those you argue a pair of incisors similar to 
those of a mouse ; and the truth is, the boy, who has his second 

5 



f*6 



COMPARATIVE Pm'STOGNOMY. 



set, has but one pair of cutting teeth in each jaw. To the 
exercise of gnawing we should imagine that nothing could be 

better suited than the cracker which 
constitutes their principal food. They 
are wonderfully mischievous but not 





wilfully or maliciously so. The boy 
is fond of teasing his sister, of inter- 
meddling, of having " a finger in the 
pie," but it is all for the sake of fun 
and frolic, the gratification of curi- 
osity, the largest liberty, and the in- 
dulgence of the senses. 

You must not look in their coun- 
ir-^^iLfflSi^^ 5 " tenancesfor the expression of delight 
8u»a^ ~ c^ SSP ^ so much as in their feet : their nether 

extremities are curiosities equal to 
those of the mouse, and the appearance and feeling of their 
hands confirm the resemblance. There is no warmth in them 
— they are like dead things; and though there is a certain 
glow in the countenance of the girl, it is too literally ruby to 
answer the expectation arising from the association of " ruby 
lips." If you would understand the strange sensation that is 
produced by contact, you can experience it by kissing the lips 
of a marble statue. Of this we are assured on good authority, 
for it is no unusual thing for matronly ladies to manifest the 
common fondness for children toward the girl Bartola. But 
the> countenance of Maximo is absolutely dead, except a faint 
attempt at roguishness which may be occasionally discovered 
in the corners of his mouth. The greater amount of love 
which falls naturally to the female, gives a lifelike appearance 



THE MOUSE. 67 

to the face of his sister, and thus an interest, which his has 
not. 

There is no accounting for tastes except on principles of 
Physiognomy. People who resemble owls are attracted to 
the Aztecs, and find in them a gratification of their tastes and 
an ample field for the exercise of affection and fondness. The 
same is true of those who resemble cats. In the cat the qual- 
ities of the mouse are assimilated, and she can but love that 
which gratifies her, and which corresponds to the playfulness, 
the refinement, the cunning, and so many other things, in her 
own nature. The part of her nature that is not mouse is made 
up of bird and fish, both of which she is exceedingly fond of. 
That a cat is fond of mice in a 'higher sense than is usually 
understood is manifest from the delighted expression of her 
eyes when she sees one, and from her playing with it before 
she appropriates its little flesh and bones to the gratification 
of appetite. You can see that the mouse " fills her eye," as 
something both good for food and fair to look upon. Thus it 
is that the eye expresses taste and appetite in relation to 
beauty and quality, which are in most cases inseparable. The 
little mouse appeals to the cat through her love of infants, 
which is wonderful ; and it is affection, not hatred, in connec- 
tion with her appetite, that makes her devour it. Females 
who resemble cats threaten to devour their little ones, play 
with them as a cat with a mouse, bite harder than they in- 
tend, and really feel as if it would be a pleasure to swallow 
them alive if there were not a higher law of nature, the " sov- 
ereignty of the individual," to oppose it. We saw one man in 
whom the Aztec children excited extraordinary affection and 
delight. He kissed the girl, was enthusiastic in his admiration 
of their beauty, and went into an ecstasy at the grace and 
liveliness of their manners. He had a very parental expres- 
sion of countenance, and resembled a cat almost as much as 
the children resembled mice. 

These children never walk; they always run. Explaining 
the constant flexure of their legs by the idea that they may 
have had the rheumatism some time or other, is ridiculous. 
Except when they jump, they run with a gliding motion, which 



68 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

requires a peculiar step, like that of the mouse. There is no 
elevation upon the toes, or from straightening of the limb, so 
that (as in the absence of locomotion, or of steps and paces) 
the attention is directed principally to the head, that glides 
mysteriously along, like a mouse, or like a ball that is kicked 
from one end of a room to the other : the force seems to be 
not in itself, but behind it, or out and around. The whole ex- 
pression of the countenance is external, as if in the gratifica- 
tion of the senses it would spend its existence. In this, too, 
the Aztec children resemble mice. The first time we saw the 
boy Maximo, there was so little expression of internal con- 
sciousness, that we questioned whether he was alive. In our 
imagination he was a first man, made of red clay, with life 
breathed into his nostrils, where it seemed to reside, but that 
he had not yet become a living soul. As for Bartola, she 
should be called "Undine," but how she crept into the soul 
of the author of that delightful story it is impossible to con- 
ceive. "We should not be more surprised to see her in a little 
chariot drawn by mice, than we were at the first sight of her. 
Poets may cease dreaming of fairies, for their dreams are re- 
alized. If spirits should claim that these were the first fruits 
of their endeavor to clothe themselves with material forms, we 
should be inclined to believe them. 

But, seriously, these children do not seem like beings of 
flesh and blood. They may be taken for souls without bodies, 
or bodies without souls, whichever we please : — 

"All eye, all ear, the disembodied soul" — 

and that is what these Aztec children are, though it is pretty 
evident that their spirits are upon the outside, and that their 
senses are external. Their spirits may be said to have 
"stepped out," and this gives the impression that they are 
dead. This, and the instant association of their features with 
the Aztec images, and with the sculptured heads on the Cen- 
tral-American ruins, to which they bear so striking a resem- 
blance, impressed our minds with the idea that they were the 
work of some modern Prometheus who had discovered the 
art of creating human beings artificially. That grave coun- 



THE MOUSE. 69 

tenance, like that of a graven image ; those lively extremities, 
which might owe their activity to galvanism rather than to a 
head so motionless as theirs ; those animated dead eyes ; that 
stifled voice, extorted as it were by screws and pinching ; that 
unearthly attempt to speak ; those threads and hinges on 
which the motive power, whatever it is, is intended to oper- 
ate — these, and other things too numerous to mention, con- 
stitute a resemblance to the mouse. On the whole, they are 
pretty little contrivances for the diversion of ladies and gen- 
tlemen, old and young. 



TO COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER X. 

Foe all that ethnologists can discover to the contrary, the 
origin of the "Aztec children" is hidden in impenetrable ob- 
scurity. They are mysterious little beings certainly. If they 
are not the productions of witchcraft, they have at least a 
something about them that will cure " the blues." JSTo ghost 
can haunt a castle that is not deserted of mice. One sprite, 
or fairy, or eld rich thing, will drive out another, and so it is 
with the little elves we are speaking of. From hall or cottage 
they will keep away annoyances of a more serious nature. 
Like mice, they are weak and helpless. They are born to 
frisk and frolic, and to live on preserves and confectionery, in 
a lordly mansion, where they are permitted to make free use 
of whatever they can find. They are wholly incapable of 
providing for themselves ; and should the mansion be de- 
serted, they would starve to death. Yet they are useful in 
their way, and pay for the immunities that are afforded them. 
Think not, gentle reader, that they are the only persons who 
resemble mice ! 

But the spirit personated in the rat — oh, horrible ! Sordid, 
sensual, its energies bent on plunder ; carnivorous, insatiable ; 
hiding his plunder in subterranean holes, where he expects to 
find it ; torturing the earth to uncover and conceal his cher- 
ished gold ; extorting confessions and disclosures from the 
miserable victims of his cupidity and lust ; incarcerating men 
and women in excavations of his own, where his ratty soul 
takes refuge in times of danger — these are the characteristics 
of the worst of tyrants, or of those who resemble rats. On the 
following page is presented a full-length portrait of the Hindu 
nabob, Suraj-a-Dowlah, the incorrigible wretch who thrust a 
hundred and forty-six Englishmen into a dungeon not twenty 



THE RAT — THE HARE. 



71 



feet square, known to fame as the " Black Hole of Calcutta." 
It was about eight o'clock in the evening when they were 
forced in, and " at eight o'clock 
in the morning the narrow space 



was so completely blocked up 
with the dead lying one upon an- 
other, and those who yet lived 
were so weak and faint, that it 
was with the greatest difficulty 
that the door was opened. At 
length twenty- three ghastly fig- 
ures were brought out — figures 
that would not have been recog- 
nised by the mothers that bore 
them." What better could be 
expected from a man who resem- 
bled a horrible black rat? If 
there be such a thing as transmi- 
gration of souls, it might be some 
gratification to the English to 
imagine that he was among the 

number of infernal rats that the city of Paris made war upon, 
killing thousands in " black holes" — and that among the skins 
they purchased of the victors, to manufacture into gloves, his 
was one ! 

Those whose faces resemble hares or rabbits are much pret- 
tier. They are attractive, simple, lively, ready to act at a 
moment's warning, but somewhat selfish and quarrelsome 
withal. As with the mouse, there is very little fraternal affec- 
tion in them, though filial love is strong. They are remarked 
for wonderful aptitude and desire to learn, and for extraordi- 





72 COMPAEATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

nary suscep/ibility of improvement. The portrait of Sir Henry 
Clinton, w) ich follows, may be taken for a model of a school- 
ooy countenance. It is that also of a " hewer of wood and a 
drawer of water." It is the representative of a useful class, 
but of one that learns to do mischief and good with equal facil- 
ity. You can see impudence in that countenance, requiring 
only to be let go in order to exhibit it- 
self in words, and to act hand-in-hand 
with mischief, to which it is near akin. 
If that were the case, filial love would 
be selfish, like the fondness of a cat for 
a mouse — requiring to be fed and 
clothed, and making insolent demands, 
and thereby retaining the character 
of weakness and infancy. The person 
who resembles a rabbit is either saucy, 
impudent, idle, disobedient, or the very 
reverse ; for the animal faculties acting 
in subserviency to those that are peculiarly human are re- 
versed, and manifest themselves in the very opposite direc- 
tion. Thus there is no harm in resembling a savage beast, 
for the traits of character in such an animal tend to innocence, 
peace, comfort, contentment, and felicity, as is manifested in 
the faces, expressions, postures, motions, and air, of the feline 
animals, when their passions are withdrawn from the external, 
which is the region of disturbance, to the internal, which is 
the region of tranquillity. It is as the difference between the 
surface of the ocean and the depths beneath. 

The person who resembles the mouse has tendencies toward 
refinement and elevation, while the one who resembles the 
rat has none. The one aspires, ransacks drawers and closets, 
buries himself in books and papers in garrets, gleans knowl- 
edge from every source, finds profit in being alone, and " all 
the bread and cheese he has he lays upon a shelf" The 
other sinks in the mire of corruption, delves for filthy lucre, 
and has no disposition to rise except upon the heaps that he 
can accumulate. 

The person who resembles the squirrel has nobler tenden- 



THE SQUIRREL. 



73 



cjies than the one who resembles the mouse. The squirrel 
countenance which we 
see here is interesting, 
charming, good, and 
improves on acquaint- 
ance. It indicates in- 
terest,simplicity truth- 
fulness, cheerful and 
lively emotions, do- 
mestic virtues, provi- 
dence, industry, aspi- 
ration, liking for chil- 
dren, tenderness, and 
the love of being well 
housed and made com- 
fortable. It resembles 
the squirrel in every- 
thing, as a higher may 
correspond to a lower ; and who is there that, from the coun- 
tenance alone, would not confirm our judgment of the charac- 
ter? It is the face of Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of 
Henry Till. 





Of the traits mentioned in the last character, maternal love is 
the centre, around which the others cluster. This is still more 



74 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



remarkably the case with the individual who resembles the 
opossum. But the latter is as homely as the former is beau- 
tiful ; and this word " homely" is the very one to express the 





looks and dispositions of the per- 
son referred to : the parental feel- 
ing is so strong, that even in the 
male it seems maternal, and in the female it seems more than 
that. This is a rude sketch of a South African, an old Bossouto 
warrior, a convert to Christianity. For a resemblance to the 
opossum, that carries its young ones in a pouch, and loves to 
do so, we may well look to the African mothers, who carry 
their children continually about them, so that the office of 
child-bearing never ceases. The Ethiops are children, as be- 
fore described, and parental love in children exhibits itself 
chiefly in carrying babies in their arms, which is the more 
servile employment, but easy, because it is a child's affection, 
the exercise of which is play. Whatever animal the Africans 
resemble is fond of carrying young things ; and this is the 
principal secret of the elephant's wonderful docility, for men 
are playthings to him, and he serves his master as a negro 
does a child, or as a heathen does his idol. He rides him on 
his tusks, tosses him on his back, takes him down again, teters 
him up and down, as if he would say, " This is my doll-baby V 



THE MONKEY. T5 



CHAPTER XI. 

It would be a strange thing indeed if, in tracing the resem- 
blance between men and animals, we should overlook the 
monkey. The class of animals called simia similate man so 
perfectly ^as often to create the suspicion that there is some- 
thing human in them. The orang-outang is justly entitled to 
the appellation of " wild man of the woods," though some 
consider it too high an honor to bestow upon him for his mock- 
ery of the human species. But man was born to be created, 
to labor as an artist in the production of an image and like- 
ness of the Divine ; and, until he has macle himself a man, he 
is a mere child, a mere production of Nature, a wild man of 
the woods. The orang-outang has not one particle of the 
artist about him, and therefore he is not and never can be a 
man. 

The ape, as a representative of the class to which he be- 
longs, is a parody on the human race. He represents the 
perversions of human nature in the extreme, and operates as 
a check, without which man would set no bounds to his folly 
and madness, his vanity and pride, and would degenerate 
into the ape he now despises. 

Of the perversions to which man is liable, and which con- 
stitute his resemblance to the monkey, let us speak in order. 
First, his assumption of appearances and manners not belong- 
ing to him ; his affectation of qualities superior to his own ; 
his ambition to pass for a being of superior mould — to palm 
himself off for a god. It is Dr. Adam Clarke (is it not?) who 
supposes that the temptation of our first parents (that by eat- 
ing the forbidden fruit they should be as gods, knowing good 
and evil) was suggested by an orang-outang ; but now-a-days 
the creature operates as a preventive to such a vain ambition. 



76 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

The rock on which they split is a warning to their posterity ; 
and those who disregard it must appear very much to the 
angels as monkeys do to us : — 

" Man, proud man, 




Dressed in a little brief authority, 
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, 
As make the angels weep — who with our spleens 
Would all themselves laugh mortal." 

Human beings are pleased with a reflection of themselves 
in a glass, in the minds of others (particularly when they can 

have their characters described to 
them), in every object thtit they re- 
semble, even in a monkey. Hence 
they are more amused with these an- 
imals than any other, laugh heartily 
at their grimaces and mannerly ways, 
and in doing so resemble them still 
more. 

Be it observed that apes are not 
ambitious to be men, but as men, 
and the ambition of men is not to be 
angels, but as such. It is a great mistake to suppose that men 
should nof aspire to be angels. The error is in wishing to ap- 
pear such when they are not. They rob heaven of its sacred 
things, that they may appear divine, and receive the homage 
that is due to the Supreme Being, not considering that these 
things are forbidden fruit. They rob humanity, which is rob- 
bery of Him who created man in his own image, and with 
the things they steal from their fellow-beings they invest them- 
selves, and thereby claim for themselves divinity, and com- 
mand that those whom they have robbed should fall down 
and worship them — worship the garments, the equipage, the 
gold, the power, which they have filched from the hands 
of the poor and needy. There is not a thing they wear but 
that is a token of something heavenly, and is therefore too 
good for them. It is the proper clothing of beings that are 
good and pure, humble, and moved by charity in everything 
they do. It is not one man, but the majority, that " steal the 



THE MONKEY. 



77 



liver j of heaven to serve the devil in." Hence the ape is a 
representative of mankind in general, and combines in his 
physiognomy and character all sorts of animals — some men 
resembling one species of monkey, and some another ! 

The disposition to take what does not belong to him is con- 
spicuous in man's social relations, especially in the commer- 
cial department, and this also is strikingly exhibited in the 
monkey. In a community of apes it is the practice to look, 
every man, on the things of his neighbor, with an eye to their 
appropriation to his own use ; 
and we can well imagine what 
sort of order and harmony must 
prevail in a community that is 
regulated by such a principle as 
this. Monkeys are actuated by 
the feeling that what another has 

is theirs ; that " stolen waters are ^V^^T^ 

sweet ;" that what is stolen is bet- 
ter than what is given to them — 
are always reaching their arms 

into their neighbors' provinces, grabbing at each other's food, 
pulling tails, kicking up a row, causing hubbub and confusion, 

abusing and insulting each 
other to the face, and " rob- 
bing Peter to pay Paul" in 
every possible way they can 
think of. This is all in the 
disposition to similate man ; 
and if they will rob man of 
his distinctive attributes (for 
this is humanity perverted), 
of course they will rob each 
other. 

The second liability to per- 
version which constitutes a 
resemblance to the monkey 
is that of the domestic affec- 
tions. The ambition to seem, rather than to be, withdraws 





78 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



everything from within and expends it upon the surface in a 
deceptive appearance, which is worse than nothing at all. 

" How little do they know what is, who frame 
Their hasty judgment upon that which seems P* 

The mere shell-of-an-individual is hollow-hearted. Like a 
balloon he exalts himself on account of his greatness, and 
proves rather how vapid is his intellect, and how little there 
is in him. Of sensibility and shame he has so small an 
amount, that they are hardly appreciable. To make room for 
pride and vanity, he deprives the domestic affections of their 
home, where alone they are capable of existing; he turns 
them out upon the surface, where they grow cold, die, and are 
petrified into an appearance of reality. It is worse than 
naught, for love without tenderness is inhuman. Its feeling, 
its consciousness, its susceptibility to pleasure and pain, which 
is internal, is lost in brutality, or mere instinctiveness, which 
is upon the outside. 

The instinctiveness of a faculty exhibits itself in gesture. 
Parental love in a child is chiefly this, and expends itself on 
dolls. In parents it is developed interiorly, and relates to 
conscious infants that can laugh and cry. The first and low- 
est action is instinctive ; the last and highest is a conscious 
one. In the monkey there is the same action of parental love 
that there is in a child. The creature handles its young one 
as if it were a rag-baby, and this appears like an imitation of 
a human mother, though it is far more like the actions of a 
little girl. Anything that can be made a baby of, like a mar- 
mozet, attracts the attention of an orang-outang instantly ; and 
his actions when he sees it — his desire to have it, his manner 
of holding it, and every sign and movement that he makes 
under the excitement of this superficial impulse — is strikingly 
similar to that of a little girl under the excitement of the pas- 
sion for dolls. The simplicity, gravity, earnestness, and eager- 
ness, of this mockery of a mother's love, is exceedingly ludi- 
crous, when we reflect that it is merely instinctive ; that there 
is no emotion of tenderness in it, no feeling of responsibility, 
no exercise of consciousness, prompted by susceptibility to 



THE MONKEI. 79 

pleasure or pain, in the object of attention. In assuming the 
dress and manner of superiors, in taking what does not belong 
to them, in the affectation that accompanies parental love, 
and in parental love itself, mankind are " children of an older 
growth ;" and in so far as they are children they are natural, 
and in so far as they are natural they resemble monkeys. 

That monkeys act as men naturally do, is too plainly at- 
tested by the senses to admit of a contradiction. In superfi- 
cial people, especially, parental love is upon the outside ; their 
children are dolls, and they dress them accordingly, as if they 
were insensible to pain and invulnerable to disease. That 
comfort and health are not the first considerations is quite 
certain, and hence the conscious action of parental love is less 
than the instinctive. The latter is a blind idolatry, that de- 
fends its young with one hand, while with the other it presses 
it to death. Where mankind are most like monkeys, children 
are most like dolls — the objects of idle ceremony and parade, 
of passionate attention alternating with cruel neglect. At one 
time they are addressed as if they were fools, and of no ac- 
count ; at another they have powers imputed to them equal to 
those of Shakspere: and, in keeping with this idea, they are 
at times considered helpless, and at other times have tasks 
imposed upon them that are suited to giants. 

This blind, instinctive action of parental love is the origin 
of idolatry. It is like the devotion of an ant to the egg that 
he is going to place in his temple. Idols are the dolls of fool- 
ish, wicked people, who retain the characters of children when 
they ought to be men. As dolls are exalted into objects of 
importance, so are these ; though, as they are " children of an 
idle brain," they are at times treated with contempt by those 
who made them. They are the objects of a thousand childish 
conceits, of ridiculous ceremonies, of pantomimic show, of un- 
meaning jibber and nonsense. The places in which they are 
kept are such as children choose for baby-houses. The atten- 
tion that is shown them passes for filial reverence, though, as 
they are objects of parental affection, the appearance of re- 
spect is mere mockery. Of a mother who shows this blind- 
ness of parental love, it is often said, "She worships that 



80 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



child ," and the reverence of an idolator is this, and nothing 
more. 

The first of the domestic af- 
fections in a proper and order- 
ly state is the conjugal, but in 





a state of perversion the first is the parental ; and the charac- 
ter of the primary affection is the character of all the rest. 
But we forbear to speak further of the resemblance between 
mankind and the monkey. It may be observed, however, 
that the more angles there are in the countenance, and the 
greater angularity in the corners of the mouth and eyes, and 
in the dimples, the greater is the resemblance to the monkey, 
in both character and physiognomy. In those who resemble 
the mouse, there is the opposite, viz., roundness. The most 
perfect contour is a medium between the two, and this is the 
symmetrical. 



THE FISH. 



81 



CHAPTEK XII, 



From time immemorial human beings have exhibited a 
fondness for clothing themselves in scales and armor, and 
have chosen circumstances which would afford occasion for 
doing so. This is very appropriate in one who is like a tish 
in physiognomy, as in the individual before us, or in one who 
resembles a serpent. The strongest 
element in military ambition is the 
love of contest, the object of which 
is the palm of victory, or a prize ; 
and this it is which governs the ac- 
tions of a fish, and fills up the meas- 
ure of existence in the life of a snake. 
In the pursuit of food there is a con- 
test for the greatest mouthfuls, and 
for the greatest number of prizes ; 
and hence the serpent lays in a 
month's provisions at a single swal- 
low, and the fish rushes forward in the pursuit of food, eager 
to get it first, and dashes it down without stopping to enjoy 
his meals. It is always a race with others for the prize, which 
he who is the swiftest wins. 

By the union of contest with the love of food, Appetite is ren- 
dered rapacious ; and, never satisfied, it rushes onward for more. 
The laurel won in battle is lost by the ambition for another 
still. It is neither tasted nor enjoyed, and is therefore noth- 
ing gained. The love of contest is not limited by appetite: 
; t wants the whole, so long as one atom of it is in danger of 
being seized by another. It gives the poor fish no rest — it 
urges him on continually, as it does those who are actuated 
by a like ambition, of whom it is said, "There is no peace to 

6 




82 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



the wicked." The finny tribes not only race, but do battle 
with each other ; they have swords and bayonets, as well as 
shields and bucklers, and engines-of-war for beating down 
barriers, as well as barriers for resisting assault. They bela- 
bor each other with their tails, as if they had boasted to " beat 
each other all hollow," and the trial had commenced. 

The African tribes 
whose contentions fur- 
nish victims for the 
slave-trade are of the 
variety of negroes that 
are like fishes rather 
than elephants. The 
negro fisheries along 
the coast of Africa de- 
pend on the same ex- 
igencies, the fisher- 
men cruise about with 
f [s _^r the same uncertain- 

ties and hopes of suc- 
cess, are prompted by the same tastes and associations, are 
stimulated by the same desire of gain (only far more intense- 
ly), as the fisheries on the coast of Newfoundland and else- 
where. But there is a piratical 
bloodthirstiness in the one case 
which there is not in the other. 

Catching negroes is akin to fish- >^^ ' JmO 

ing, and the caught are stowed iljf - '"! , " M )\ 

away on board vessels like cod- 
fish and whale-oil ; and were it 
not that they resemble fishes, 
and that there is a feeling of 
this, and a dim perception of 
it, the business would be per- 
fectly infernal. There is always 

something to relieve men from the charge of being devils in- 
carnate, and to place them in a position in which their refor- 
mation is not to be despa^ed ot. 





THE FISH. 



83 



Allowing that the class of negroes we are speaking of re- 
semble fishes, as we see by the foregoing figure and the one 
following, what could we expect from them in slavery, and in 
any other country than their own, but that they should act 
like " fishes out of water" ? They are not in their element, 
but the talents natural to them are put forth in a new direc- 
tion. The last time we 
had the pleasure of hear- 
ing a negro play the ban- 
jo, we were delighted to 
see how strikingly the 
music corresponded to 
the twitches and vibra- 
tions of a fish that is try- 
ing to live on air, and to 
make it a substitute for 
water. Whoever will pay 
attention to it, will be 
equally struck with the 
similarity. Then, again, 
the dancing that accom- 
panies the banjo, and in which fifty negroes may be engaged, 
is like the flopping of so many fishes up and down, and from 
side to side, on their fins 
and tails. You might fan- 
cy that you had fallen down 
into some charmed region 
beneath the ocean, into a 
company of mermaids. 

"We have heard it said 
that the West India negroes 
are extravagantly fond of 
fish, all the more if it has 
swum in brine since it was 
alive. Negroes of the kind 
that may be compared to 

weeds on a plantation are excessively prolific, as they should 
be to resemble fishes. In slavery the' ' % no field for the 





84 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

exercise of the love of contest, which in a state of cultivation 
would make them pant to excel and to outstrip others in tne 
pursuit of noble objects. The ambition which is the princi- 
pal ingredient in their natures is turned into a strife for supe- 
riority in laziness, in eating and drinking, in lying and steal 
ing, and in various kinds of profligacy. But they are in the 
first stages of training. There are many degrees between tho 
lowest action of the love of contest and the highest ; let them 
be elevated to the latter, and they will aspire to " glory, honor, 
and immortality," as individuals of them have done already. 
There are no people who are naturally more ambitious than 
they. In dancing, music, and religious exercises, so far as 
exertion is concerned, they excel all others ; and exertion, 
other things being equal, is the measure of ambition. 

Of the class of negroes who resemble fishes, some are simi- 
lar to whales, and these are akin to those who resemble ele- 
phants. Both are fond of spouting, as are the animals them- 
selves, and this opens a channel for their ambition to flow in. 
It is in proportion to their feeling of greatness ; and it may 
be the same feeling in the elephant and the w T hale that causes 
them to engage in the corresponding exercise. The negro 
distinguishes himself for his laugh as well as for his speechi 
lying, and the stress which he lays upon the former shows 
that he attaches importance to it. There is very great char- 
acter in the sudden explosion of sounds called " laughter," for 
it proceeds from the bottom of the heart, and shows the depths 
of a man's soundings (which are in some cases exceedingly 
shallow), together with the quality of the ground — whether it 
be rock, sand, clay, or gravel. The negro's " Y-e-w-a-h ! — 
yah ! yah ! yah !" is wonderfully like the sound which we 
have often heard in a menagerie, proceeding from the ele- 
phant — especially the first, " Y-e-w-a-h!" — of which "yah! 
yah ! yah !" is the echo. It seems as if the negro struck upon 
the resemblance in his nature to the elephant, and sent it 
forth in a sound expressive of his consciousness of it; and 
then, to show his pleasure, and at the same time a little of 
shame at the foolishness of what he has discovered, laughed 
at the sound, or echoed it — for echo is laughter. 



TITE FISH. 85 

This is our opinion of echo, and of the philosophy of laugh- 
ing, and we think that others will be inclined to agree with 
us. The reason why animals do not laugh is, that there is no 
echo in them ; they have nothing but themselves — they are 
the oriffina-j sound, and the echo is in man. Laughter is a 
reflection of nature ; it shows man to be an artist. Echo is 
in exact proportion to the perfection of art. A landscape or 
a temple, to be beautiful, must be full of echoes ; this will 
prove that it is in harmony with nature, or that it is a reflec- 
tion of beauty of which nature is the original. Artists resemble 
horses, and the horse utters a sound that is exceedingly like 
laughter : this is so faithfully imitated by a large number of 
people, that the " horse-laugh" has become proverbial. 

A volume might be written on the varieties of laughter, 
showing that those who laugh like horses resemble horses ; 
that those whose laughter is an echo of the voice of the lion 
resemble lions ; that those whose laughter the parrot is fond 
of imitating, resemble parrots ; that those who echo the voice 
of the crow resemble crows ; and so on. 



86 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Man is reared upon the animal, as a temple is reared upon 
its base. The mineral kingdom is the substratum of the vege- 
table, the vegetable of the animal, and the animal of man. 
The human temple, as a whole, is based upon the entire ani- 
mal kingdom ; and one stone of that temple is raised upon 
the back of a turtle, another on an eagle, another on a horse, 
another on a lion, and so on to the end of the catalogue. The 
basis and the superstructure, of course, resemble each other; 
but the former is created for the latter, the lower for the 
higher, the animal for the human : and hence it should be 
said that animals resemble men, and not the reverse, except 
by implication. In a city where no two houses were of the 
same appearance and dimensions, each foundation would cor- 
respond to its own house better than to any other ; and as 
persons differ from each other, it is evident that one animal 
will resemble one, and another another. 



There are 



More things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamed of in your philosophy." 

There is a science of poetry as well as of physics. All gen- 
eral truths are made up of particulars ; and no one will deny 
that the kingdoms of Nature rise one above another, and that 
each kingdom is composed of parts, and that the parts above 
must have an orderly relation to those beneath. For each 
vegetable there is a mineral, for each animal there is a vege- 
table, and for each man there is an animal ; and the vege- 
table that is the animal's, and the mineral that is the vege- 
table's, are man's also. Why not, if the second kingdom of 
Nature rests upon the first, the third upon the second, and if 
man is supported by them all ? 



MEN AND ANIMALS. 87 

This relation does not imply that a particular man subsists 
upon a particular animal ; for the truth is, each man is a rep- 
resentative of his race, and comprehends in himself all sorts 
of animals, so that he somewhat resembles them all. He is 
an individual, and not to be confounded with things in gen- 
eral. It is true that he " eats everything," selecting at will 
from the three kingdoms of Nature, and balancing himself 
into a likeness of all things ; but his resemblance to some one 
particular specimen of natural history is still retained. If his 
foundation be a lion, self-love will cause him to love and ad- 
mire that animal, and he will cherish in himself the attributes 
that he admires and loves. But the superstructure which he 
rears may be so beautiful, so perfect, that the basis will not 
be observed. He may, indeed, love the foundation so greatly 
as to care for nothing higher ; but when he has reared a beau- 
tiful temple upon it, which is himself, he values it all the 
more for the sake of the use. His first affection is self-love, 
and looks to nothing beyond the animal ; his second is benev- 
olence, and looks to humanity, and to elevating himself into 
a representative of his race, and this is his true and noble self, 
in the love of which the love of the neighbor is included. It 
is a beautiful conception which places a hero upon the back 
of a lion, another of a different character upon a leopard, an- 
other upon a horse ; but what would we think of the artist 
who should place his hero upon a cow, a hog, or a deer? 
The impropriety of such a thing arises from the fact that man 
is reared upon the animal kingdom once, and not twice; 
upon the horse in one way, and upon the cow in another. 

The animals which men in general have the greatest resen? 
blance to are those that they are most inclined to rear them- 
selves upon, by either eating their flesh or riding upon their 
backs. Thus the resemblance is increased. This is desira- 
ble, for in this world at least man must have a foundation to 
stand upon. He derives a stamina from the animal kingdom 
which the vegetable does not afford, and from the vegetable 
a substance which is supplied in a very scanty degree by the 
mineral. But for a foundation to his feet the mineral king- 
dom is the best. Man has a feeling that, whatever animal it 



88 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY-. 

is proper for him to bestride, it is not proper for him to eat, 
and vice versa. Hence the ass, the horse, the elephant, the 
camel, and the llama, are not associated in the mind with 
the ideas of slaughter, nor with the desire for flesh : and Na- 
ture, to suit this law, has made the flesh of the animals that 
are most suitable for burden distasteful. But the ox, the deer, 
the sheep, the goat, suggest the propriety of sacrificing their 
lives for our own ; and in proportion as they do so, the idea 
of sitting upon them, or of using them as beasts of burden, 
strikes us as absurd. 



THE DEEE. 89 



CHAPTER XIV. 

People who feel and think alike, and love the same things, 
are drawn together by their sympathies and by their attrac- 
tion to the same objects. Associating with each other, their 
points of difference are reconciled, and they learn to agree 
more and more. This principle is applicable to the associa- 
tions between men and animals, which are in many cases 
exceedingly intimate, and also to the intercourse of animals 
with each other. " Birds of a feather flock together ;" and 
the bringing together of animals that are antagonistic may 
harmonize them in such a degree, that the cage in which they 
are confined may be compared to u Noah's ark." 

We will take a special instance for the illustration of our 
principle. It must have been an agreement in the first place 
between the Laplander and the reindeer that brought them 
together. The former must have seen the adaptation of the 
latter to his own necessities and pursuits ; and the latter, 
when brought into the service of his superior, acknowledged, 
by his submission and acceptance of favors in return, that no 
violence was done to his nature, but that there was afforded 
a wider field for the exercise of his predominant faculties. 
The Laplander, on the other hand, seeing what the reindeer 
could do, expanded his thoughts, inspired the spirit of the 
animal, and adapted himself to the instincts and habits which 
were to be called into his own service, and which required 
to be ministered to in order that they might be a benefit to 
himself; and it is very likely that powers that would have 
remained dormant in the deer, for want of exercise, were 
awakened by the duties imposed upon him. 

This is the relation in which the Laplander and reindeer 
stand to each other at present, for they are as primitive as 



90 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




ever, and the deer is ready at any time to go wild, and his 
master is in a state of exertion to reclaim him. And that they 
have a strong resemblance to each other is certain. What- 
ever produces similarity in character, produces similarity in 
countenance, in body, manners, and appearance. The rein- 
deer is like the Laplander as a whole ; and in the manner of 
standing, and in the features of the face, there is a striking 
similarity. The causes of this similarity are numerous and 
powerful. The reindeer is the animal that belongs to the 
Laplander especially ; and the country to which the former is 
adapted the latter will inhabit, though he be threatened never 
so hard with being " imprisoned in chilling regions of thick- 
ribbed ice." — " That dreary region," says a writer, " owes to 
this animal whatever it possesses of civilization, and whatever 
comforts tend to make it supportable to the inhabitants." The 
Laplander's foundation-stone, the lap of earth on which he is 
reared, is the reindeer; and add to the causes mentioned 
above, the fact that he is principally reared upon the flesh 
and milk of this animal, and converts every part of the car- 
cass into something of his own, and it is no wonder that the 
resemblance between them is so great. 

It was remarked in the former chapter that for every ani- 



THE DEER. 



91 



mal there is a plant. Sometimes the animal lives upon its 
plant and sometimes it does not, bat there is a resemblance 
between the one and the other, as there is between man and 
animals. The plant proper to the reindeer is his food, the 
reindeer-moss, and this he resembles, particularly in the horns, 
which are the more vegetable portion of his organization. 
Whoever admires deer's-horns admires trees, and branching 
shrubs, and flowers, of which lichens appear to be the types 
and originals. This portrait of an eminent painter of flowers 





resembles a deer, and 
looks as if flowers and 
snow-flakes should be 
showered about his head in honor of his talent, as well as for 
the gratification of his taste. 

The person on the following page is one who has more of 
the literal deer in him than is becoming, or rather he has too 
little of the higher attributes that are proper to man. His 
resemblance to the deer is more striking from the deficiency 
of that which conceals the animal by converting it into the 
higher use which it is intended to subserve. We should as- 
cribe to him insensibility, wildness, impetuosity, love of lib- 
erty, determination to have his own way, a measuring of 
obstacles at a single glance, but never removing them, an 
aversion to others on account of scruples of conscience, which 
he is pleased to call trifles, and finally a disposition to elope 



92 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




with some fair one who may be taken with his dashing ap 
pearance. 

To resemble an animal 
that has horns upon his 
head for ornament rather 
than for use, is to be sub- 
ject more than others to 
depression of spirits — to 
"the blues" — to feelings 
like those which follow in- 
toxication — and to that 
complication of nervous 
sensations called " the hor- 
rors." Ornaments prove 
the heaviest burdens, but 
where Nature grants them 
she give? also the strength 
to support them. Persons 
who resemble deers have 
their " ups and downs ;" and whatever it is in the mind that 
corresponds to the horns on the head of a deer, is like two 
trees, barren in win- 
ter, but covered with 
foliage and flowers in 
summer. In the mind, 
summer should be per- 
petual : the trees and 
shrubs should be ever- 
greens, like moss, and 
the flowers perennial ; 
snowflakes in one sea- 
son, and blossoms in 
another. Thus the per- 
son who resembles the 
deer may be happy al- 
ways. In his " up and 
down" he should be 
elastic and bounding. Cowper's is a head that resembles a 




THE DEER. 93 

deer very strongly. That spontaneous effusion, " John Gil- 
pin," is the deer that, in his feeling of abandonment, he rested 
back upon — the deer that ran away with. him. 

"Away went hat and wig" — 

and away went the heavy deers'-horns — the barren, leafless, 
winter trees — from the mind, and juvenile ones budded and 
blossomed in their places. 

It may be said of those who resemble deers, that they are 
inclined to 

«* Look from Nature up to Nature's God." 

They reason from effects to causes, and it would be a perver- 
sion of their natures to reason otherwise. They are delighted 
with those things that are full of spirit and animation, in which 
the life and soul, the desire and thought, and the Povver supe- 
rior to either, are easily discerned in the effect. Hence they 
are fond of birds and flowers, and everything beautiful, which 
are so full of the spiritual, that the grossness is scarcely per- 
ceptible. For the same reason these people are shocked at 
deformity, which, as it is the absence of the spiritual, is the 
characteristic of grossness. Beauty, they perceive, is the cause, 
and not the effect : it moulds its opposite (the effect) into a 
likeness of itself, and changes grossness and deformity into 
refinement and beauty. Their course is forward and upward, 
from the lower to the higher, "leaving the things that are 
behind and piessing forward to the things that are before." 
They set their eyes on beauty, and, progressing toward per- 
fection, they come nearer and nearer to it, and nearer to the 
Final Cause tj which tbev tend. 



94 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XY. 

"What distance have you made?" is equivalent to "What 
progress?" Length is synonymous with advancement — as 
when we say that a goose's head is six inches in advance of 
his body. In the neck of the goose there is something absurd, 
for the simple reason that there is advancement without pro- 
gression. The organs of locomotion are unequal to the head- 
way indicated in the neck. The man who resembles a heron 




comprehends distance ; if it were not so, he could not make a 
successful coup tfetat upon the frog — a creature that in meas- 
uring distances demonstrates perfectly that measurement, 
while it is synonymous with distance, is synonymous also with 
progression. A " strip" of something, a " stripling," and " out- 
stripping" a deer, are ideas naturally connected. When a 
person goes very swiftly, he is said to go " like a streak," and 
a streak is nothing but a straight line. In the form of the 
iieron the faculty of distance is indicated by chains and links. 
Fou might fancy that you could take him to measure a piece 
of ground with, by both links and paces. His length is the 
physiognomical sign of progression. There is the same con- 



THE HERON. 95 

nection between travelling and distance that there is between 
a faculty of the mind and the feature which indicates it. The 
face is synonymous with the person himself, and it is as ridic- 
ulous to deny the truth of Physiognomy as it is to separate 
distance from travelling. 

It is true that, if we suppose a man's face always to be ani- 
mated, we shall be in danger of ascribing to him what he 
does not possess. There are certain persons, as well as cer- 
tain beasts and birds, that are the embodiments of absurdity 
and contradiction. They oppose the plainest physiognomical 
truths, and deny the principle that the face is an index of the 
mind. But we must understand that they are contradictions ; 
we must take them for what they are. Who is so wanting in 
a sense of the ludicrous as not to see that the goose, in respect 
to the neck, and in respect to the organ of intelliger.ee, which 
is supposed to have rule over the body, and to control the 
motion of the feet, is decidedly droll, queer, singular — so 
much so, that people are inclined to laugh at the absurdity 
of the thing ? We must not look for confirmations of Physi- 
ognomy in such an animal until we have observed that the 
body, legs, and feet, belie the swiftness that is indicated in 
the neck. He is a bundle of contradictions, and this makes 
it necessary that we should put him into our intellectual cru- 
cible, and subject him to analysis and combination, and the 
test of reason, until we have compelled him to speak the truth. 

A neck of unusual length is ridiculous, for the simple reason 
that it makes no progress unless the body does. It must be 
confessed, therefore, that in a bird that is all length, and at 
the same time destitute of animation, there is something in- 
trinsically absurd and supremely ridiculous. Supposing him 
to be dead, even, we can hardly resist saying, " Get a-long 
with you!" It is only a less degree of ridiculousness which 
we discover in him supposing him to be standing stock still, 
indulging in laziness, or walking very slowly. Long legs that 
do not travel are of a piece with the goose's neck, which looks 
as if it were formed to leave the body an incalculable distance 
behind it. As the person who resembles the stork is sensitive 
to ridicule, and would avoid it, it be omes him to engage in 



96 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

high and noble pursuits. The heron in the sky stretches him- 
self to the utmost. He is like a wisp of something whirled 





up from the ocean, and projected through the air like an ar- 
row. He appears to outstrip the hurricane, and is an object 
of sublimity ; but inertia makes him more ridiculous than the 
goose. In his proper character he is bold, daring, heroic, sub- 
lime, delighting in the terrific, sporting with the elements in 
their wildest mirth. Letting himself down from his true dig- 
nity, and becoming aristocratic, lazy, luxurious, intemperate, 
he is a perfect coward, and in this and every other respect 
perfectly ridiculous. 

The heron has an instinct of what is proper to him, and an 
instinct of the absurd. Hence his long neck, which indicates 
progression, and has no locomotion of its own, he doubles up 
and winds around like an ear-trumpet, which he is ashamed 
of having exhibited ; but when he flies, he holds it out like a 
spear which he is going to thrust into the heart of the wind. 
He flies through the midst of heaven, his long legs extended 
behind him; and there is nothing ridiculous in this — for he 
is a swift messenger, like those divinely commissioned to con- 
vey tidings, and to minister rebuke and happiness to man. 

The ministration of those who resemble the heron, and are 
not perverted, is akin to the service of those who bear a noble 



THE HERON. 



97 



resemblance to the deer. The one has an analogy to the mag- 
netic telegraph, and the other to the railroad. The one is 
from causes to effects, and is hence a ministration of spiritual 
and heavenly things ; the other is from effects to causes, and 
is hence a ministration of earthly and corporeal things, such 
as are essential to the body. If the former be subservient to 
the latter, it substitutes cordials, teas, and narcotics, for spir- 
itual healing and comfort ; it perverts appetite and taste, and 
is the cause of the intemperance in eating and drinking spo- 
ken of in the chapter concerning the stork. This is charac- 
teristic of those who resemble the heron literally. But if they 
(like Howard the philan- 
thropist, whose portrait is 
annexed) minister to oth- 
ers instead of themselves, 
they relieve the distresses 
of the mind, remove the 
causes of its sickness, dis- 
sipate falsehood, and nour- 
ish the soul with truth ; 
and so far as is necessary 
they minister to the body 
also. They can not do the 
one without doing the oth- 
er. As body and soul are 
united and correspond, it 
is absurd to divide the office of physician into two. 

We have observed that those who resemble the heron have 
a sense of what is proper to them, and consequently a sense 
of the improper or absurd. Short, duck-legged people, too, 
have a sense of the ludicrous when they are as Nature de- 
signed them to be. The wild goose and duck double up their 
necks while standing, and thrust them out when they are anx- 
ious to go ahead. The people who resemble them are fond 
of ridiculing those who resemble the heron, and then they 
forget that they are themselves ridiculous, and most so when 
they hiss at those who are above them, with the idea of " his- 
sing them downy They " run out their necks" at people, 

7 




98 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

but their short legs have never the office of running ascribed 
to them. It is as absurd for short things to travel, as for long 
ones to stand still. This renders the goose and the duck 
doubly ridiculous. It is the short and long together that 
makes a person awkward and ungainly ; and the well-propor- 
tioned and graceful, like the heron and the stork, if they are 
employed in useful undertakings, can well afford to be laughed 
at, seeing they have nothing to do but to attend to their own 
proper business, and allow jokes and laughter to fall back 
upon the heads of geese and ganders ! 



THE CAMEL. 99 



CHAPTEK XYI. 

As between the camel and the Arab there is a likeness in 
habits and pursuits, in tastes and dispositions, so also there is 
in physognomy. They live in the desert because they are 
adapted to it, and they are adapted to it because they live 
there. Adaptation or accommodation is one of the essentials 
of hospitality. The camel accommodates himself to all sorts 
of inconveniences for the convenience of others, and the power 
of adaptation in the Arab is equally wonderful. His highest 
expectation is to render his own condition tolerable ; and as 
this is the consequence and means of promoting the comfort 
of others, the Arab is an example of genuine hospitality. The 
conveniences of the camel depend entirely on accommodating 
himself to ^conveniences. Look at his feet and legs : what 
accommodating members ! Was there ever such a commo- 
dious hump, or such an accommodating stomach ? Yet is his 
temperament choleric, or hot and dry, like the burning desert 
he inhabits, and to which he is so wonderfully adapted. The 
temperament of the Arab is the same. The kneeling of the 
camel, to receive his burden and to set it down again, is, fig- 
uratively speaking, for the sake of an oasis in the desert, and 
the hospitality of the Arab is for the sake of another and more 
beautiful one. 

The camel and the Arab carry their heads erect and high. 
Their sight and hearing are wonderfully acute. Their faces 
are thin, and their bodies are always lean. Their eyes are 
sunken, and the brows projecting. They have high cheek- 
bones, Roman noses, straight hair, and countenances of un- 
common gravity. But there are shades of expression and fea- 
ture that constitute the more particular resemblance between 
them, as is evident on comparing their likenesses. 



100 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



Looking at the face ot a camel, one would suppose that the 

person who resembled him would never smile ; and the Arab, 

instead of smiling when he greets a 

friend, looks grave and solemn. There 





is something in the attitude and appearance of the camel that 
reminds us of the Arab salutation — placing the right hand 
on the breast and then on the forehead, and saying, " Peace 
be with you !" As the camel's foot is formed to press the 
sand, we should suppose that those who resembled him might 
find it more natural to press each other's palms (the right of 
one being adapted to the left of the other), than to clasp and 
shake hands in the ordinary way ; and it is true that the Arabs 
do so. In the manner of the camel's eating, and chewing the 
cud, there is something exceedingly slovenly and disagreea- 
ble, and the Arab's cooking and eating are of the same char- 
acter. The mutton which he serves up is sure to have a 
plenty of wool in it ; and his butter, being churned in goat- 
skin bags, the hair of which is inside, contains a profusion of 
hairs. These extraneous substances the Arab does not object 
to, for if a person resembles the camel, and finds his subsist- 
ence in the desert, it will not do for him to be particular. 
Whatever provision is offered to him, the Desert says, "This 
or none !" He eats but two meals a day, though much at a 
time, and, like the camel, is capable of going several days 
without food or drink. He is dexterous though rather un- 
graceful in his movements, and trains his children to hard- 
ships as he does his camels. 

It is adaptation to the worst of situations, or to Nature in 
her most hideous forms, that renders the camel ugly and un- 



THE CAMEL. 



101 




comfortable. Who has not observed the ugliness in his dis- 
position as well as in his looks? and in what animal is there 
such an air of discom- 
fort as in him ? Yet, 
as a compensation for 
this, there is in this 
ugliness something 
good ; in human be- 
ings there is kindness 
and an obliging turn, 
willingness, self-deni- 
al, and whatever is 
included in that no- 
ble virtue, hospitali- 
ty. Homely people 
have a home for all, 
and none for them- 
selves ; but it is well to remember that this goodness holds in 
check a vast amount of ugliness, which may at some time 

gain the advantage. Socra- 
tes acknowledged this fact 
with regard to himself, and 
the magnanimity of the con- 
fession was a part of that self- 
denial and accommodation to 
hardship which was a cause 
of his ugliness. The man to 
whom Nature is a harsh and 
capricious mother, grows up 
ugly and deformed ; but if 
he have learned to love her, it is a sign that she has instilled 
good into him, and he resembles her more and more. There 
is grandeur and sublimity in the rugged virtues that he is 
compelled to practise, but vastly more in the rugged morality 
that is based on those, and that is as free and independent as 
those are compulsory. But the man to whom Nature is provi- 
dent and tender, grows up handsome, and the more he sym- 
pathizes with charming objects the more beautiful he becomes. 




102 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



Yet beauty without sublimity has " a worm i' the bud ;" it is 
fading and ephemeral ; it relapses into effeminacy, and de- 
generates finally into ugliness, like that of swamps, in which 
the animals are not homely, but monstrous. The Arab who 
inhabits the delta of the Nile is the very opposite of hospita- 
ble, for he requires a certain amount of accommodation, and 
he imposes it upon Nature, since Nature does not impose it 
upon him. 

The ugliness of the camel and the Arab in the deserts has 
a tendency to be of the very noblest kind. It contains the 
element of self-denial, or of virtue, as before observed, and 
this encloses an image of the most exquisite beauty — an ob- 
ject of reverence, of devotion, of self-sacrifice. Homely hos- 
pitality entertains a heavenly visitant, an embodied perfection, 

in every stranger, regarding 
him with the same defer- 
ence, and administering tc 
his comfort and happiness, 
as if it would make up for 
the heavenly felicities which 
he is supposed to have been 
accustomed to. Thus the 
homeliest people have the 
most intense admiration and 
devotion to the beautiful, as 
was the case with' Socrates ; 
and the beautiful in return 
have grateful love and exalted reverence for the homely. 
Thus, too, the homeliest animal and the most beautiful (the 
camel and the horse), the most perfect specimens in their way, 
live together in Arabia. The horse is the embodiment of the 
choleric temperament (which makes him high-spirited and 
noble), without the habit of accommodation to deform him. 
The camel and the Arab are accommodated to him, and the 
desert air is the most congenial to his temperament : hence 
in Arabia are produced the finest horses in the world. The 
barb is the Arab's guest, his especial favorite, and a better 
entertainment than is afforded by his honest keeper he could 




THE CAMEL. 103 

not have. People who resemble horses find homely persons 
to be their most indulgent, faithful, enthusiastic, and devoted 
friends. 

The countenance of a stranger is to the Arab what an oasis 
is to the desert. That countenance will smile if hospitality 
can make it, but the Arab's never, till the desert shall bud 
and blossom as the rose. The green spot owes the perfection 
of its beauty to the desolation that surrounds it, but from this 
the desert is to be clothed ; and in like manner the beautiful 
have a mission to the ugly, and there is given to the latter the 
disposition to entertain them, and to emulate their graces by 
preserving and heightening their charms. The stranger is 
indebted to the Arab, not for hospitality merely, but for the 
blessings that are intended for all, and of which he is made 
the dispenser. This the Arab feels, and by feeling knows. 
When the Bedouins have committed a robbery, they say of 
the plunder, that they " have gained it ;" and when reproved 
for the depredation, they reply that they " are Arabs." They 
do not take the life of the stranger when they rob him, but 
claim relationship, saying, " Undress thyself — thine aunt is 
without a garment." This is what the Desert would say to 
the Oasis, if it had a tongue, and it is the language of the 
ugly to the beautiful. 

The plundering disposition of the Arab is compatible with 
the excess of their hospitality. When they have pitched their 
tents, the individual is fortunate who first discovers a stranger 
approaching the encampment, for he is allowed to claim him 
as his guest ; and to tell an Arab that he does not treat his 
guests well, is deemed one of the greatest of insults. 

If the Arab resembles the desert, he resembles the camel 
still more. He enters into the feelings of his companion, and 
enlivens him with a chant, that is said to make him travel 
more easily. There is something in the appearance of a camel 
that reminds one of an old astrologer : he looks as if he were 
eying the stars. The Arabs consult the stars on all occasions 
of importance, particularly in reference to their undertakings 
and hold astrology in high honor. The camel looks as if he 
were born to do penance, and as if the sum of the penalties 



104: COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

wh.jli he had to endure was to press the burning sands with 
his naked feet, which are thereby rendered insensible to the 
inlliction. The penalty which the Arab suffers is that of blows 
upon the soles of his feet; he is bastinadoed to expiate his 
crimes. A traveller says of a case which he witnessed in 
Cairo, that the Arab, after receiving the punishment by the 
order of the governor, was unable to stand, and groaning with 
pain was borne out by his friends ; and that " the governor, 
in the meantime, stood as though hardened to such transac- 
tions, munching his jaws like a sheep chewing the cud." We 
imagine that it was like a sheep, only excessively so — that 
is, like a camel. 



THE VULTURE. 105 



CHAPTER XYII. 

We have been thinking of the cowardice of a certain va- 
riety of the carnivorous appetite — that which waits till assured 
of the death of an animal, by the putridity of its carcass. Say, 
if you will, that the crow, the raven, the Vulture, and the turkey- 
buzzard, live on carrion because they prefer it to fresh meat 
— still we maintain that the appetite for substances in a state 
of decomposition is promoted by cowardice ; and it is equally 
true, we believe, that cowardice is increased by these sub- 
stances. The proof of this is in the fact that all animals that 
live on carrion are cowardly, and that all cowardly animals 
have something to do with carrion. This statement will, of 
course, need considerable explanation. There is no coward 
who is not cruel. The benevolent individual, who would not 
harm a fly, does not prove himself a coward by refusing to 
accept a challenge ; but the ruffianly fellow, who pleads that 
it is against his principles to fight, does not inspire us with 
such full confidence in his bravery. You can never say of 
the person who " would not hurt a hair of your head," that he 
is a coward. The harmless, inoffensive, vegetable-eating ani- 
mals, are not cowards, for the simple reason that they are not 
cruel ; but the carnivorous are so, in the degree that they 
ought to he courageous and are not. A timid hare will scare 
away a class of birds that have a scurrilous resemblance to 
hawks and owls ; but as soon as he is poor, or sick, or lame, 
he will have the crows after him, with the whole posse of 
cowardly gluttons that spend their lives " waiting for dead 
men's shoes." 

The caravans in the desert, it is said, are followed by vul- 
tures — signs in the heavens of the cruelty of human beings 
to the animals that serve them ! The vulture resembles the 



106 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



camel, as may be seen by a comparison of their forms ; and 
the Arab who is not merciful to his beast resembles the former 

more than the latter. He wishes his 
overburdened camel to fly like the 
wind (as certain persons do their 
horses when they drive them), and 
the consequence is, the poor animal 
is soon an object of expectation to 
the greedy vultures. The cowardly 
wretch who treats his horse or his 
camel thus can not bear to be looked 
at by the animal he abuses ; the eye 
that he deprives of brightness he car 





not meet ; he never saw any beauty in it, that he should ad- 
mire it; and when it appeals imploringly to heaven, with an 
eloquence that touches the hearts of the tender, and makes 
them almost curse the cruel master, he walks by it at a dis- 
tance, or hastily pulls the blind over it, lest he should discover 
a feeling of pity and remorse in the heart of even so base a 
wretch as himself. 

From a similar prompting, the dastardly vultures, when the 
eyes of the camel are turned upward (as they always are, to 
see what they are about), shrink away into the depths of air. 
They can not endure to be looked at by the innocent ones to 
whom they meditate injury. Like the ruffian, the vulture 
seeks to extinguish himself: he shrinks into nothingness, and 



THE VULTURE. 107 

is neither seen nor heard of till those eyes that he dreads have 
lost their fire — when suddenly he descends and plucks them 
out, and riots upon the carcass. 

Constant apprehension of the motives of others — how cow- 
ardly! evil surmises against characters — how cruel! This is 
the action of Suspicion, and is nourished by fermented food 
and drink. The very minds of persons who have these tastes 
and dispositions are in a constant ferment. If they were not 
afraid of people, they would not whisper suspicions about 
them, and would not tear out the eyes of the dead. It is not 
one of these who can say — 

"I've not a vulture's bill, 



To pick at all the faults I see, 
And make them wider still !" 

The person who confides in others trusts in God, and is not 
afraid. He can not be cruel to those he confides in, nor sus- 
picious of those he loves ; and that he chooses to trust man- 
kind, is proof that he loves them. 

All animals, be it observed, that are fond of carrion, are 
remarkable for suspicion : they are apprehensive of danger 
constantly. When a creature is dead, the crows pounce upon 
him ; they tear him to pieces with savage ferocity, exulting in 
the triumph over an animal greater than themselves, as if the 
" King of Terrors" had nothing to do with it ! But they are 
cowards : engrossed as they are in their riotous feast, you can 
not get within gun-shot of them ; and there is not one of them 
that has courage enough to defend himself against the king- 
fisher, or the other small birds that give him chase. He is 
put to flight by a scarecrow : what could be more contempti- 
bly cowardly than that ! 

People who ascribe wrath to the Almighty, and endeavor 
to escape it by denouncing it against others, are both cow- 
ardly and cruel. They are in constant terror of others, for 
they judge others by themselves; and as they suffer from 
fear, they try to make others afraid of them,. It is well that 
they should be governed by an appearance of anger, in storms 
and tempests, in famines and earthquakes, in diseases and 



108 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

deaths, for they can be governed in this way and in no other. 
They make a virtue of their dread, confounding it with rever- 
ence, and offering it as a claim to favor. They revenge on 
man their fear of the Deity, in tortures innumerable, and of 
every conceivable variety. They wish to be feared, to be 
worshipped with awe and trembling. They claim the blood 
of a thousand victims to gratify their cruelty, and to increase 
the terror of the multitude, which is to them the most accept- 
able worship. They wish to impress upon others that they 
have power supreme, and that life and death are at their dis- 
posal. 

"We have said that there is a connection between the appe- 
tite for fermented food and drinks and the faculty of suspi- 
cion. The latter is excited to an intense and morbid degree 
by drunkenness ; for all spirituous liquors are the result of fer- 
mentation. The appetite for intoxicating drink is provoked 
by cowardly apprehension. Some people take it before mount- 
ing the rostrum, to give them courage — not because they are 
modest, but because they are cowardly. Some take it to 
strengthen " faint heart," which " never won fair lady," and 
to grow mad, that they may be admired for their bravery. 
Some take it to make them soldiers, when it is safer to go for- 
ward than to run. Some take it to enable them to go through 
with their labors — not because they are industrious, but be- 
cause they are lazy, and Necessity tells them that it " must 
be done." Some take it to drive away " the blues," to drown 
care, and to stupify sensibility, because they have not the 
courage to face adversity, and do not dare to suffer. But 
never does this yielding to fear give preponderance to cour- 
age : it excites madness, which is another name for cruelty, 
and the mere mockery of the courage that is wanting ; and 
always does the appetite for fermented things increase the 
power of that very passion of which it is the slave. 

The inebriate lives in the very atmosphere that engenders 
suspicion — the putridity of his own breath — in which the 
blow-fly, the crow, and the hog, with all their cowardly ap- 
prehensions, might be deluded into the idea of safety, as in 
the presence of something dead. In such a charnel-house, 



THE VULTURE. 



109 



how could it be otherwise than that he should have " the hor- 
rors" ? Suspicion, Cowardice, and the appetite for fermented 
food and drink, excite each other more and more. The con- 
summation is a tragic scene, in which each plays a conspicu- 
ous part, with Cruelty at their head : the title of the tragedy 
is, "Delirium Tremens." 

All madness is cowardice and cruelty combined, as exhib- 
ited in the insane, and in the history of the drunkard from 
beginning to end. Who does not know of the cruelties in- 
flicted upon wives and children, and the destruction of every 
tender and merciful feeling in the human heart, by an indul- 
gence of the appetite of which we are speaking ? 

There is something natu- 
ral in the fondness of .the 
analytical Frenchman for 
substances in a state of de- 
composition. As he is al- 
ways in the process of fer- 
mentation and ebullition, 
it is appropriate that he 
should make external mat- 
ters and things correspond, 
and that he should have an 
appetite for tainted meat, 
and a taste for wine : and 
if we have a correct ver- 
sion of his history, he has 
proved himself suspicious, cowardly, and cruel. We see a 
strong resemblance to the vulture in the preceding portrait, 

Marat, who, on suspicion 
only, and because he was 
excessively cowardly and 
cruel, caused multitudes 
of his countrymen to be 
arrested, imprisoned, and 
guillotined. His ambi- 
tion was to become a ter- 
ror, and to inspire cowards with awe — the only reverence 





110 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

they are capable of — and to be thought powerful and brave 
in proportion as he was faint-hearted and cowardly. The 
countenance of Robespierre is that of a scavenger, full of ap- 
prehension, meanness, and cruelty ; it resembles that of the 
young gentleman accompanied by the vulture, at the begin- 
ning of this chapter. The dog that loves carrion, and smells 
of it, is always wanting in pluck ; and, to make up for the de- 
ficiency, he lives on garbage, and seizes the things that he 
will be thanked for devouring. A resemblance to such an 
animal, as well as to the vulture, is seen in Robespierre ; and 
a resemblance to this or any other of the variety of scavengers, 
fits a man to be a rag-picker, rather than a president or a king. 
There is such impudence in human nature, or rather in the 
want of it, that people of the character we have been descri- 
bing pride themselves upon their suspicion, as if this were the 
evidence of superior penetration and wisdom. The want of 
confidence in others which arises from fear, is self-confidence, 
and this is pride. It is cowardly to have no faith in the future 
and in things unseen, and to shrink back into the past as the 
only reality, and thus to remain infants. It was the " reign 
of teri-or" when France was a nation of infidels ; but what 
they are now, and what governs them, we do not say, except 
that they are as fond of baubles as children are : — 

" Fantastic, frolicsome, and wild, 
With all the trinkets of a child." 

It is as cruel as it is cowardly to doubt a future existence, to 
rely only upon the past, and to believe only in reason and the 
evidence of the senses ; for it seeks to destroy — it aims at an- 
nihilation. The French are like the frog in the well, that 
jumped three feet forward every day, and fell back two every 
night ; for when they have been stimulated to take a step for- 
ward, they wish instantly to return to the past. The reason 
is this : the stimulus that urges them forward is that which 
excites cruelty and madness — the remedy which is sought by 
Fear to soothe its sufferings, and by Skepticism to exalt its 
pride. 



THE OX. lit 




CHAPTER XYIII. 

There are vulgar people who are fond of tracing in the hu- 
man face a likeness to the " calf," as we should infer from 
their frequent application of this epithet to juveniles of their 
own species. We would inquire of them if this individual 
looks as if he had been reared 
on milk, and were now going 
in search of some ? If this be 
bo, it is proper that the heir 
should be after him, though 
following like an humble pe- 
titioner who despairs of establishing his lawful claim. The 
preceding is a handsome young man, and evidently English ; 
and the English, without distinction of age or sex, are known 
by the general appellation of " John Bull." But in this young 
gentleman, whose chin indicates a greater degree of precocity 
than his mouth and eyes, no person who has sat at the domes- 
tic board, where " calves' brains" are served up, can fail to be 
interested. There is delicacy in the expression of his face, 
along with an obtrusive bluntness. The degree of obtuseness 
in the features indicates just that degree of obtuseness in the 
intellect that entitles the possessor to the allegorical title that 
is applied to him. He owes nothing to instinct, and knows 
nothing at all until experience has taught him. He is like a 
calf in the blindness of the little instinct that Nature has given 
him ; or in being subjected to the spontaneous action of his 
feelings and desires in a manner that causes him to act ridic- 
ulously. He is loud in his demands : when he wants any- 
thing, he shows that he can not be denied ; and as to denying 
himself, that is entirely out of the question. He can not even 
wait; he will knock his brains out if what he calls for does 



11-2 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY-. 



not come speedily. The reason is, he is deficient in instinct 
and in the faculty of self-control ; and his large submissioi 
yields to the sway of his intense desires, instead of yielding 
to the government of others. His wants are of the nature of 
necessities, and therefore it is that they govern him, and gov- 
ern his parents also. He is called self-willed, when the truth 
is his passions rule him, and he is perfectly submissive. But 
there is a sterner necessity than desire, and to this he must 
come at last. It is punishment ! — oh, horrible ! — yes, pun- 
ishment will make him submissive to the yoke. Better late 
than never. Reader, if you doubt of this being an exact de- 
scription of young Englishmen, observe for yourself, and you 
will be satisfied that we are right. 

Let us now take a glance at the parents — the John Bulls. 
Here is the face of an Englishwoman, and it is seen how 




much she resembles the cow ; annexed is a portrait of Hume, 
and we see how much he resembles the male animal. "Who 
can not discover by this countenance that the mind ruminates ? 
You can almost see the regurgitation, and the process of pre- 
paring the food for more thorough digestion. Whoever sits 
down to the perusal of his pages will rise up edified and pre* 
pared to labor. To the traits first mentioned, which exist m 
the mature Englishman as well as in the youngster, may bo 



THE OX. 



113 




added these : large economy (you see it in the double chin, 
and it is large in historians) ; great strength. (you see it in the 
obtuseness of the fea- 
tures, and of all the' 
members of the body) ; 
and large love of en- 
joyment (you see it in 
the lateral projection 
of the outer corner of 
the ridge of the eye- 
brow). The English 
are remarkably econo- 
mical in domestic af- 
fairs ; they are content 
with small profits, for 
they husband every- 
thing; and in political economy, circumstances considered, 
they are superior to all others. They can show larger double 
chins, more resemblance to the cow and the ox, better hus- 
bandly, and more economy in every respect, than any other 
nation. They are also strong and powerful, like the ox. This 
is indicated by a certain obtuseness of features that is a me- 
dium between grossness and effeminacy. They are the very 
opposite in this respect of those who resemble the horse. Re- 
finement takes away from that unity which is the foundation of 
strength. All the refinement which the Englishman can receive 
will not make him effeminate. Such is not the case with the 
Italians, who, as will be shown in the next chapter, resemble 
horses ; they have never yet recovered from the effeminacy 
which was induced by the civilization and refinement of their 
ancestors. The vigor and grasp of intellect which characterize 
the English are like the strength of the ox when he exercises 
it in draught, or in pushing with the horn. 

But though the obtuseness in the features of the English, 
and the refinement in those of the Italians, indicate opposition 
in character, this opposition is like that which prevails in mu- 
sic — it is the opposition necessary to harmony : and there is, 
in reality, a remarkable affinity between the English and the 

8 



114 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

Italians. There is also an intimate relation between the horse 
and the cow : the latter steals from the former, and values 
and saves what the former throws away. The interests of the 
one harmonize with the interests of the other, but they do not 
therefore like each other over and above well, and it would 
be a perfect absurdity to harness them together ! 

The love of enjoyment is another thing in which the Eng- 
lish prove their right to the appellation of John Bull. It is 
this which gives them the air of quietude so like the cow. 
They are indebted to this for the principal share of the gentle- 
ness and gentility that they are possessed of. It is this which 
is so pleasing in the Englishwomen, and which constitutes 
their principal charm ; they are pictures of serenity and do- 
mestic comfort. In the love of enjoyment there is the taste 
for whatever is exquisite — as the flavor of fruit, the fragrance 
of flowers, the softest tones of music, like those of the iEolian 
harp, the most delicate tints, like those of the rainbow, &c. 
Everything beautiful in the English character is connected 
with this ; and everything delightful in their works of art, in 
their literature, in their institutions, and in their homes, may 
be referred to it. It places them in a beautiful relation to 
the Italians, as it places the cow in a beautiful relation to the 
horse. 

If the young Englishman presented at the beginning of this 
chapter was reared on milk, on the opposite page is certainly 
a specimen that is fed on beef. You have only to deprive 
the Englishman of the exquisite love of enjoyment above re- 
ferred to, and the roughness, obtuseness, vast strength, and 
want of refinement of both the moral and intellectual percep- 
tions, stand forth bold and prominent. The " mad bulls" of 
England are famous the world over, and they are the personi- 
fications of a certain class of Englishmen; but the one we 
have here is not mad. He may be an Italian converted into 
a Briton — a horse into an ox : he is simply gross, sensual, im- 
perious, domineering, heavy and strong, stolid and obtuse, 
ungracious and wanting in sense of propriety ! He answers 
very well to one of the varieties of Englishmen as given by 
Spenser : — 



THE OX. 



115 




" The miller was a stout carl, deep of tones, 
Right large he was of brawn, and eke of bones ; 
With shoulders broad and short — a knob or gnarr — 
There was no door but he'd heave up the bar, 
Or break, by running at it with his head ; 
His beard, as any sow or fox, was red !" 

The ox is the very personification of repulsiveness, indl 
cated in the size and strength of the spinal marrow, and by 
the extraordinary strength imparted to the muscles of the 
back. Emerson says of the Englishman, that " the axis of 
his eyes is united to his back-bone." We understand by this 
that he is quick to see whatever he does not like, that his eyes 
are the sentinels of his repulsiveness, and that with repulsive- 
ness he guards his eyes. The same shrewd observer says : 
"The Englishman is remarkable for his pluck. He shows 
you that he means to have his rights respected. He knows 
just what he wants, and he means to have it. He is sure to let 
it be known if he is not served to his mind. Still he is not 
quarrelsome. Among the twelve hundred young men at Ox- 
ford a duel was never known to take place. His self-posses- 
sion is not pugnacity; he does not wish to injure others — 
he is thinking only of himself!" This is a description to the 
very life. Even the mad bull »;as no animosity, or desire to 
injure anybody : he only wishes to gratify his headlong dis- 
position, the instinct of which is in his horns. 



116 



COMPARATIVE IHYSIOGNOMY. 



It is the Englishman's title to 
makes him so fond of beef, and 




skin and wrinkles of the neck and 
dignity and old age ; the length 
of the back-bone ; the long 
tail, with the tuft at the end 
of it ; the brawny extremities 
and the matchless strength ; 
the extraordinary size and 
thickness of the neck; and, 
in the bison, which is a kind 
of ox, the shaggy mane which 
covers it — all proclaim the 
right of the English to ideal- 
ize their national symbol into 
a lion — especially as John 
Bull himself, who is the person 
carnivorous. 

The liking of the English for 
the flesh of these animals, and 
themselves, may be illustrated 



the epithet of John Bull that 
the influence of this kind of 
food upon him increases 
the resemblance. He 
wishes his national char- 
acter to be that of a Car- 
nivorous ox ; and hence 
the badge of his nation- 
ality, which he chooses 
above all others, is a lion.' 
And the resemblance be- 
tween the bull and the 
lion is very striking. The 
broad, deep, and power- 
ful chest ; the deep, re- 
verberating sounds that 
swell from it ; the grave 
and noble aspect of the 
countenance ; the loose 
face, giving the appearance of 
of the body, and the strength 




intended to be represented, is 

horned cattle, their liking for 
their likeness to the animals 
by the following description, 



THE OX. 117 

drawn by Dickens : " The blessings of Smithiield are too well 
understood to need recapitulation ; all who run (away from mad 
bulls and pursuing oxen) may read. Any market-day they 
may be beheld in glorious action. Possibly the merits of our 
slaughter-houses are not yet quite so generally appreciated. 

" Slaughter-houses, in the large towns of England, are al- 
ways (with the exception of one or two enterprising towns) 
most numerous in the most densely-crowded places, where 
there is the least circulation of air. They are often under- 
ground, in cellars ; they are sometimes in close back-yards ; 
sometimes (as in Spitalfields) in the very shops where the meat 
is sold. Occasionally, under good private management, they 
are ventilated and clean. For the most part, they are unven- 
tilated and dirty ; and, to the reeking walls, putrid fat and 
other offensive animal matter clings with a tenacious hold. . . . 
In half a quarter of a mile's length of Whitechapel, at one 
time, there shall be six hundred newly-slaughtered oxen hang- 
ing up, and seven hundred sheep — but the more the merrier 
— proof of prosperity and it's — 

'Oh, the roast beef of England, my boy, 
The jolly old English roast beef!' 

" Mrs. Quickly says that prunes are ill for a green wound ; 
but whosoever says that putrid animal substances are ill for a 
green wound, or for robust vigor, or for anything or for any- 
body, is a humanity-monger and a humbug. 'Britons never, 
never, never,' &c, therefore ! And prosperity to cattle-dri- 
ving, cattle-slaughtering, bone-crushing, blood-boiling, trotter- 
scraping, tripe-dressing, paunch-cleaning, gut-spinning, hide- 
preparing, tallow-melting, and other salubrious proceedings, 
in the midst of hospitals, churchyards, workhouses, schools, 
infirmaries, refuges, dwellings, provision-shops, nurseries, sick- 
beds — every stage and baiting-place in the journey from birth 
to death !" 

There is a trait in the Englishman and the ox so extraordi- 
nary, that it deserves to be taken particular notice of: it is 
submission. The sign of this faculty is the loose fold under 
the throat, and in the ox it is the dewlap. This name reminds 



118 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




us of the ricli pastures of John Bull, in which the sign of sub- 
mission laps the dew while the bull grazes. The submission 
of the Englishman is graceful in the extreme, for it is perfectly 

natural to him. The dew of his 
youth is upon it — and he is re- 
markable for the memory of his 
childhood. His submission to his 
sovereign is of a piece with his 
submission to parental authority; 
and as he was taught the one by 
punishment, he needs not that the 
other should be enforced. Mon- 
archy rests more securely in Eng- 
land than in any other country, for 
it confides in the submission that 
is universally felt and recognised. 
It is no usurpation, and has therefore nothing to fear. They 
are as free as the people of a republic, and even more so — 
for, as Authority and Submission 
are on the best possible terms with 
each other, the duty to obey and 
the right to command are united in 
the same character, and it is easy 
for the people to be one. John Bull 
is a single individual, or the entire 
people, whichever you please : the 
description that is applicable to the 
one is applicable to the other. In 
their relations with other nations, 
they are like the youngster first described 
governed by their own desires, submissive to their own wants, 
yielding to nothing but necessity. When they set their heart 
upon anything, diplomacy to prevent their getting it is mere 
mockery. If they are convinced at all, it is against their will ; 

and — 

44 A man convinced against bis will, 
Is of the same Dpinion still." 

The only argument that can avail with them is force, but of 
this they have naturally more than others, and it has been 




selfish, imperious, 



THE OX. 



119 



strengthened with them by exercise. Still it is necessaiy to 
give them " change in their own coin," or to " answer them 
according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own con 
ceit." However, it is a good rule, "Answer not a fool ac 
cording to his folly, lest thou be like him." 

According to Physiognomy, the faculties of will lay in the 
cerebellum, along with the passion which Gall assigned to 
that portion of the brain. These, in a sovereign like Henry 

YIIL, and in the animal to which 
lie bears a resemblance, are im- 





perative beyond measure, and. their external indications are 
so large as to attract attention. A "bull-neck" suggests the 
idea of a tyrannical disposition, or of irresistible desire, and is 
never spoken of in the way of compliment. To the faculties 
of love and will in the cerebellum the neck is bowed by Sub- 
mission, and they are made more tyrannical than they other- 
wise would be ; they cause that the individual should act upon 
the principle that " might is right." John Bull shows a re- 
markable obtuseness of the moral and intellectual perceptions 
when the rules of morality are applied to himself; but when 
he takes the position of an umpire — in which case his percep- 
tions are less under the influence of the faculties in the basi- 
lar region of the cranium, and more associated with exquisite 
discrimination or love of enjoyment — his perceptions are more 
refined. This is true of the person whose portrait is presented 
on the following page, and who, from his resemblance to the 
above, was well suited to cater to the selfishness, licentious- 
ness, and cruelty, of that beastly monarch. Cardinal Wolsey 




120 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

and the king whose baseness he excelled should go together, 
as they did in sensual indulgence, and in the love of power, 
and in too literal re- 
semblance to the ani- ~^^m^^^^^S 
mals they belong to. 'IiM , -M 

When oxen draw : ' >M ' '/ilps 

together in a yoke, '^ImSIr ^^ 

they lean away from WPl 

each other, so as to * / 

be under the necessity of holding each 

other up. This is on account of their great repulsiveness — a 
trait which was mentioned as being a prominent element of 
the English character. It is an exhibition, also, of a sort of 
ox-justice — a pulling in opposite directions, in order to know 
whicli is the right way. Oxen never know the road ; they are 
kept in it by pulling against each other ; and they act precisely 
as if they were in a perfect state of dubiousness as to where 
they were going to, and as to what step they should take next. 
They see the two horns of a dilemma most distinctly, and pru- 
dently consider which they shall choose ; and (a yoke of oxen 
being naturally repulsive to each other) the one inclines to 
the right horn and the other to the left. Between the two, if 
the yoke were not a strong one, it would be pulled asunder; 
and if a thong were not applied to them, they would not go 
forward at all. Precisely so it is with the English in all ques- 
tions of law and equity, especially in a court of justice where 
the right of a question is a difficult point to be decided. The 
result is, that the parties upon the opposite sides are as antag- 
onistic as possible; and the trial, with all the "gee-hawing," 
and yelling, and thrashing, makes excessively slow progress. 
If the patient in this case is not in respect to fortune as strong 
as a yoke, he is drawn and quartered, and the lumbering suit 
is stopped for the want of means to go on with it. With this 
peculiarity of the English we are so familiar, that we take no 
particular notice of it, and do not reflect but that it is as com- 
mon to other people as to them. Of course, this spirit of liti- 
gation, growing out of antagonism, is a prominent trait in their 
descendants in this country ; but it grows weaker, and is ex- 



THE OX. 



121 



hibited here much less than in England, and now much less 
than formerly. 

It is the trait of character here described that makes the 
Englishman " as honest as a cooper's cow." He must know 





" the right of the case" before he can pronounce judgment ; 
he is particularly anxious to " take the right bull by the 
horns ;" he endeavors to hold the scales of justice in impartial 
balance ; his fellow-laborer is the man who opposes him, who 
counterpoises him by a weight of argument equal to his own. 
He loves to acknowledge a mutual dependence. If the love 
of truth did not bind him to his opponent, he would fall : 
hence he acknowledges a higher dependence upon truth than 
on man, as oxen acknowledge a dependence upon the yoke 
more than upon each other. He submits to truth as the ox 
submits to the yoke ; his faculties of love and will are partic- 
ularly submissive and obedient. Thus are those stern, rude, 
barbarian qualities mentioned in the last paragraph, turned to 
harmony with that delightful trait in the English character, 
the love of enjoyment. 

Let us turn to this, and say a few words upon it before we 
part with the English. The quietness before spoken of as con- 
stituting a resemblance between the Englishwoman and the 
cow, conceals very often the viciousness referred to in Byron's 
couplet : — 

" If she will she will, you may depend on't ; 
If she won't she won't, and there's an end on't!" 



122 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOM1 

You are not to conclude that it is absent from the character 
because it is concealed, any more than you are to conclude 
that a cow will give down her milk, or will not kick over the 
pail, because she is seen chewing the cud so quietly. But 
there is a gentleness and serenity imparted by the love of en- 
joyment that may even do away with the objectionable fea- 
ture that is expressed by the term " viciousness." In domes 
tic life, in rural economy, and in everything connected with 
the love of enjoyment, the English are admirable ; and they 
show a particular aptitude for everything Italian, or for those 
artistic things that are represented in the horse : and not 
merely do they appreciate these things, but they imitate and 
improve. As the horse has some super-excellent qualities im- 
parted to him by the English, and is a great favorite of theirs, 
so art is fostered and improved, and has a certain quietude, 
softness, serenity, and exquisiteness, imparted to it in Eng- 
land ; and in this respect it is happy there, though it lives a 
more charmed life in Italy. 



THE HORSE. 



123 



CHAPTER XIX, 



We have observed that artists resemble horses. They are 
like them in the lines that compose the features, in the bear- 
ing of the body, in their 
gait and carriage, in the 
spirit which they manifest 
in their motions and thence 
infuse into their work, and 
with which also they in- 
spire the beholder. The 
Andalusian horse, which 
we see represented below, 
is like an artist painting a 
battle-field, or a storm at 
sea. With his flashing eye 
he dashes the colors upon 
the canvass ; starts at the 




124 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

creation of his own imagination ; holds, contemplates the 
scene with caution and pride, and then dashes on again! 
Courage and fear are equally mingled in him : his success 
depends as much upon one as upon the other, and both are 
indispensable. Like the artist, he takes in the whole at a 
glance, and carefully observes the details. And the artist — 
how boldly he dashes about the lines, like a horse in the 
battle-field ; and yet how cautiously, lest the labor in details 
should not contribute to the harmony of the whole, and the 
project should be crowned with defeat ! When all is right in 
the surroundings, how confidently he dashes into the midst — 
how full of fire ; and yet how cautious, in the midst of confu- 
sion and smoke, to keep his place, to be governed by the rein, 
and to preserve the equilibrium between courage and fear ! 
As he approaches the hour of his triumph or defeat, what 
great need has he of this union of opposites ! What sadder 
spectacle of fallen pride than a horse tumbled on his back 
upon the field of battle? The failure of an artist is quite 
equal to it, to say the least. 

With the horse, courage is inspired by caution, and caution 
by courage : for in the midst of danger from which it is im- 
possible to escape, caution finds no safety but in courage ; 
and as courage would rush into danger that might be avoid- 
ed, it excites caution. With the artist, this mutual influ- 
ence of caution and courage is exhibited in a super-eminent 
degree. 

If you would see a strong resemblance to the horse, look at 
those who represent Nature on the stage, as well as at those 
who represent her on canvass. The sculptor is one who comes 
between the painter and the actor, and he, too, bears a strong 
resemblance to the horse. The Italians are a nation of artists 
and amateurs. The dilletanti are all Italy, and they may be 
classed according to the varieties of horses. We fancy that 
the reader will see a resemblance between the king of Naples 
(Ferdinand II., whose portrait is presented on the following 
page) and the variety which is there also given, in reference 
to which we should be warned not to put our trust in horses. 
He makes a fair show, and is wedge-shaped in front, but he 



THE HORSE. 



125 



takes a wide sweep when he brings up the rear. Time was 
when the horse had a Roman nose, and was exceedingly 

warlike ; and he represented the 
Romans then, as he represents 
them now. Instead of the old 
Roman nose, which ruled "lord 
of the ascendant," we see now-a- 
days the "saddle-backed nose" 





among the Italians as often as among other people, and at- 
tached to a horse as often as to any other animal. The Ro- 
man war-horse, that might well remind you of the slumbering 
lion, you can scarcely distinguish from the miserable cart- 
horse, with the ardor, the spirit, and the fire, driven out of 
him, instead of slumbering like the thunderbolt in the heavy 
cloud. This same horse becomes in after-times the clumpy 
beast of burden, and so it is with the Italian who is overbur- 
dened and poorly fed. 

On the succeeding page, however, is the picture of an Ital- 
ian female who loves to be useful — who does the much that 
her heart and strength prompt her to do, and no more. She 
is more noble than the Roman matron who reared her sons 
for war, for she applies the same elements of strength to the 
promotion of peace ; and we may say that the animal that 
stands adjoining is more noble than the war-horse, and quite 
as independent. The aspect assures us of the good disposi- 
tion, the willingness to labor, the confidence of good treatment, 
and the constant readiness for service. 

The horse is a form of art. Symmetry is one of his peculi- 
arities : and his motions, like the outlines of his body, undu- 



126 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



late between straight lines and circles. Action is character- 
istic alike of the artist and of the horse. ]STo judge pro- 
. . nounces upon the merits of a horse 

until he sees him in motion, or, to 
use his own phrase, observes " how 





he handles himself." It may be said also that no amateur 
pronounces upon the merits of an artist until he sees how he 
handles his instruments, or sees his motions described on can- 
vass or marble. The line of beauty insensibly perceived in 
the gait of a spirited, proud, dashing, but easy, graceful, and 
obedient horse, is the result of that perfect union of boldness 
and timidity before spoken of, together with an even balance 
between weight and lightness, and the symmetry which char- 
acterizes him. The affinity of the artist for the horse is there- 
fore very great. Among other evidences is his habit of wear- 
ing the hair long, thus increasing his resemblance to the ani- 
mal he so much admires. It is true also that woman, who is 
privileged to wear the hair long, is more symmetrical, more 
graceful, and in every way more artistic, except in boldness 
and originality, than man. She is also a passionate admirer 
of the horse, and skilful in managing him ; and is herself the 
model of that beauty (see next page) which by the Italians, 
and by all who make pilgrimages to Rome, is sought for in 
the works of the old masters, and in the atmosphere of that 
delightful country. 

The artist owes his artistic talent to an original genius in- 
fused into him from his earliest existence. How often do we 
hear it said that the man who is not born an artist can never 



THE HORSE. 



127 




become one ! This shows that there can be no true art that 
has not its original in Nature, that does not agree with Na- 
ture, and that does not cite Nature 
as its authority. The child that is 
destined to be an artist is more a 
" child of Nature" than any other. 
In every movement of that wild 
one you see an inspiration of art ; 
and the graceful, curveting, high- 
spirited horse seems moved also by 
inspiration. In Italian children, 
more than in any other, do you see 

those forms and those motions that f "\ \X 

waken in you the appreciation of 
art, and which cause you to start 
with pleasure and surprise, like an artist when he beholds a 
beautiful landscape, or like a horse, with a look of animation, 

when he comes to the 
brow of a hill, and 
sees a h'ne, beautiful 
country spread out 
before him. Laugh, 
if you will — but ob- 
serve, and you will 
find that those sights 
which startle and an- 
imate the spirit of a 
horse are those which 
are the most interest- 
ing in the eye of an 
artist. Just such a curve in the road, just such a clump of 
trees, and just such a house, as excites the attention of a horse, 
attracts the artist, and he looks upon it as the result of an 
inspiration in the mind of somebody. 

Inspiration is, indeed, the origin of art. Nature is a reve- 
lation, but it is only the higher faculties in man that are capa- 
ble of regarding it as such ; and art, which is inspired by this, 
is a revelation in a far higher sense than Nature is. The art- 




128 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

fill in Nature, as in the fox and the cat, is detestable in human 
beings. It is the province of the higher art to render subser- 
vient whatever is artful in the natural character. The facul- 
ties of imposture, intrigue, dissembling, and cunning, are con- 
verted by it into the love of responsibility, the love of concert, 
the love of ceremony (affectation), and the love of surprise. 
The horse manifests all these faculties in subserviency to art : 
the love of responsibility in carrying his master safely and 
proudly ; his love of concert in galloping in rank and file, and 
in prancing to the sound of music ; his love of ceremonj^ in 
his graceful carriage, which is particularly manifested on cer- 
emonial occasions ; and his love of surprise in being startled 
at everything extraordinary— -more from surprise than fear, 
though caution has much to do with it, and is one of the things 
necessary to an artist, as before observed. These faculties 
have a higher action in the horse than in other animals, sim- 
ply because it is a form of art, and is subject to a kind of 
inspiration, corresponding to that of the artist. The dog 
shares in the pleasure of his master, and the cock is proud of 
himself; but it can be said only of the horse, that he 

" Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride." 

He is not free, however, as man is, to change the character 
that Nature gave him, except to a very limited extent. In 
so far as Nature has failed in making ' him a perfect form of 
art, he is capable of degeneracy. Horses sometimes " make 
believe." We have known them to feign lameness (though 
it is only the most miserable kind of horses that do this), and 
if their skittishness is not sometimes an affectation of fear, it 
is exceedingly like it. In circuses, horses are trained to this, 
and there it is certainly theatrical, artistic, and intended for 
effect. No other animal, not even the dog or the monkey, 
can play his part so well. The biting, the kicking, and the 
various equina! passions, are represented upon the stage to 
the very life ; and here he is more admired as an actor than 
the clown himself, who, if he were so disposed, is too perverted 
to represent Nature perfectly. 

Man is capable of making the higher faculties of art sub- 



THE HORSE. 



129 



servient to the lower, and by so doing he renders himselt 
ignoble in the extreme. He is base, hypocritical, crafty, in- 
triguing — everything that is 
included in the term " artful." 
Of this class are highly-accom- 
plished rogues and villains. 
Such men evince extraordina- 
ry talents for art, and suscep- 
tibility of refinement ; and it 
is by means of art thus per- 
verted and profaned that they 





succeed in their wicked designs — for art is pleasing to all. 
The indications of this evil disposition in them are the signs 
of the several faculties enumerated above, together with their 
resemblance to the horse. Not unfrequently they have clas- 
sic features, of exceeding delicacy, like those of an Italian 
beauty ; but in such cases the signs of the moral and religious 
faculties are wanting, and the signs of deception are larger 
than they should be. 

To be possessed of superior talents for art is therefore dan- 
gerous. The talent for acting is perhaps more liable to per- 
version than any other. The danger in this case is from the 
faculty of affectation, which in its higher action is love of 
ceremony, or politeness. External politeness is made to ex- 
ceed the internal ; the rites of religion are more than the 
spirit and the power; the profession is better than the life; 
an appearance of sanctity is made the cloak of wickedness, 

9 



130 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

and religion is made finally to consist of nothing but forms 
and ceremonies. In connection with this, the lowest class 
make an exhibition of themselves for the sake of gain. They 
feign deformities, infirmities, and calamities that have no real 
existence. They make " model artists" of themselves, and 
extend their hands for charity with such good success, that 
they are encouraged to continue their profession. To give a 
picture of the Italians, in illustration of the artful in contra- 
distinction from true art, would require more time than it 
would be profitable to spend on such a subject. 

One trait of the Italians, growing out of the thousand arti- 
fices they practise upon each other, is jealousy and distrust. 
Suspicion is said to be a characteristic of the Italians. It is 
so more from the prevalence of the artificial than from the 
strength of the faculty of suspicion. True art inspires confi 
dence, for it changes the deceitful faculties into the very op- 
posites. Who more than the sculptor and the painter love to 
give agreeable surprises ? who more than Italian opera-singers 
illustrate the faculties of affectation and love of concert ? By- 
the-by, there are sounds uttered by these Italian artists that 
remind us of the neighing of a horse. 




Art raises man to the highest pinnacle of perfection. It 
includes education, improvement, regeneration, accountability 
— all that belongs to man as created in the image and like- 
ness of his Maker. There is not a wider difference between 



THE HORSE. 



131 




the horse and the leopard, than there is between the artist in 
the highest sense of the term, and one who is artful and de- 
signing. 

If we were to define art, we 
could not do better than to say 
that it is a reflection of Nature. 
The mind of an artist is like a 
mirror : he throws back an im- 
age of the object that pleases 
him, that others may see it ; for 
an artist sees more than others. 
He contemplates the scene, and 
the result is a reflection like the 
Daguerreotype — in which the 
Sun, not content with furnish- 
ing subjects for Art, affects the 

rival. Nor is this all. What -the artist reflects is creation, 
and he therefore becomes a creator, taking Nature for his ex- 
ample. This is a higher kind of reflection ; it is thought, 
reason, poetry, fancy, and imagination. It is the mission of 
the artist to see what others do not see, and then to reflect it, 
that others may share the pleasure and the inspiration. But 
art, by the exercise of reflection, is not rendered independent 
of Nature. The dependence is even greater than before, at 
the same time that the artist is rendered original, and is free 
to depart from the exact form of the objects of the senses. 
Fancy and imagination alone endow him with the largest lib- 
erty, and make him a very Proteus in the creation of works 
of art, surrounding him with 

" Gorgons and chimeras dire ;" 

but poetry and reason, which are also creative, are bound by 
truth, and governed by the laws of order and harmony which 
Nature teaches. To depart from Nature, would be proof of 
a deficiency of the higher kind of reflection, and would con- 
demn a man to the society of his own creations, which would 
be monsters, and not worth seeing. 

As reflection includes reason, and is the essential of art, 



132 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



the philosopher as well as the poet must be an artist. As the 
horse, too, is a form of art, he may represent the philosopher 
as well as the sculptor and the painter. The man who excels 
;n either of the departments of art is deficient in neither of 
the talents referred to. In this portrait of a sage who com- 
bined them all in a super- 
eminent degree, and who 
says also that the horse cor- 
responds to reason or reflec- 
tion, we observe a resem- 
blance to that animal. We 
see it in the look, the air, 
the spirit that animates the 
countenance, as well as in 
the position and cast of the 
features. He reminds us of 
a horse that gallops long 
and free, with a distant ob- 
ject in view — ambitious, 
hopeful, confident, perseve- 
ring — with his eye in the face of the sun, which is the object 
in the horizon toward which he is tending. The bold and suc- 
cessful discoverer in the unexplored regions of science and 
philosophy is well represented by a horse racing steadily over 





^ M^T^^j 



THE HORSE. 133 

a trackless desert, in which nevertheless his animation never 
fails for the lack of objects of interest. The noblest horse — 
the Arab or the barb — will best represent and most resemble 
the man of noblest reason; and if you add the wings of the 
eagle, you have a Pegasus that is the fitting emblem of the 
highest style of art, the result of the highest inspiration. 

The philosophic mind, like the artistic, comprehends that 
"generals include particulars," and draws the outlines of his 
work before he enters into the details. As he progresses in 
the unfolding of Nature, or in transferring Nature to canvass, 
he "fills up the picture ;" and his course is as much like that 
of the war-horse under the guidance of the warrior as it is like 
that of the artist. It is described figuratively at the com- 
mencement of this chapter. His bounds being fixed, the 
waves of thought are free ; they have no power to burst into 
disorder and confusion ; they are governed by Order and 
Harmony, which say to Reason, " Thus far and no farther, 
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed !" 



134 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

One of the essential things in an artist, and in a work of 
art, is unity of design. In this consists the idea of beauty, 
which the artist perceives, and labors to produce. Without 
it there is confusion and discord, and consequently deformity 
and distortion. Harmony is essential to unity of design; 
and the crowning beauty is symmetry, because symmetry ex- 
presses unity and perfection, and hence purity — the very 
opposite of adulteration and mixture. The essentials of beauty 
are exhibited in the greatest degree in the human form, and 
in every department of art the highest perfection to which an 
artist can attain is the nearest approach to a perfect man 
which his subject will allow. We ascribe perfect symmetry 
to angelic beings, and wish that we were like them, which 
shows that unity of design is the principle in all things. What 
this symmetry indicates is what we should strive to be. It is 
the dictate of cowardice to suppose that — ■ 

" Angel forms do often hide 
Spirits to the fiends allied." 

The counterfeit of purity and intelligence is very like the ori- 
ginal, but there are " counterfeit-detectors" in the science of 
Physiognomy as well as in other things. The "prince of 
darkness" may throw over his hideous shape some thin dis- 
guises, but he knows that they only who desire external beauty, 
without the internal, will be deceived thereby. But this, un- 
fortunately, includes all, for we are so selfish as to wish to 
appear better than we are. 

As the female is in form more symmetrical than the male, 
it is taken for granted that she is the last, best work of the 
Creator ; and the qualities which we have ascribed to symme- 



THE HORSE. 



135 




try are attributed to her in a greater degree than to man. 
The artist derives from her his ideas of what is pure, perfect, 
and celestial. She is more 
fond of beauty than man — 
she is more congenial with 
it, and hence she is more 
beautiful. In our illustration 
of this we must not descend 
into everything — we must 
confine ourselves to our sub- 
ject, which is the horse. In 
point of symmetry, woman 
has more resemblance to the 
horse than to any other ani- 
mal — and her sympathies 
show that there is an inter- 
nal resemblance as well as an external. She is particularly 
fond of equestrian exercises, and manages a horse admirably, 

better than man does, 
where she has equal 
advantages, as is seen 
in Persia and in other 
countries where it is 
customary for women 
to spend much time on 
horseback. She loves 
the arching neck, and 
bending head, and fin- 
ished outline,in a great- 
er degree than man 
does, for her appreciation of the line of beauty in the horse 
is the necessary result of a higher degree of the same quality 
in herself than belongs to man. Are not the lady and horse 
above in admirable keeping with each other ? do they not 
seem to breathe the same atmosphere, and to inspire the same 
spirit? "Would you not place such a lady as that upon such 
a horse? is there not something kindly and responsive in their 
relations to each other? would not the horse feel the wishes 




136 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



of his rider, as of an animating principle, without spur or 

rein? and would not the lady sympathize in every movement 

of the horse ? 

The lady here has the air of an equestrian more than the 

former, for she prefers a horse that requires " management," 

as she herself does, and one that 
moves as this animal does. Cor- 
responding with the external re- 
semblance, you can see that she 





is intellectual, high-minded, independent, and goes straight 
forward ; full of perseverance and determination ; reaching 
forth to the future, not presumptuously, but clinging to the 
past ; not jealous, but still ambitious that nothing should pass 
her on the road to fame. 

If there is a form in Nature that may symbolize art, and 
furnish the artist with an ideal from which to trace the lines 
of beauty in creations of his own, that form is the horse. "We 
discover the outlines of this animal most in implements of 
labor, particularly of agriculture. In chairs and sofas, or 
whatever is made to recline upon, we see the same form of 
beauty and of use. But in things made to correspond with 
the body in which the soul is lodged — as in vases that con- 
tain the substances that inspirit it, and as in architecture that 
is to the body what the body is to the soul, and as in dress 
that is the clothing of the external man as the form is of the 
internal — we see that the model of beauty and perfection in 
the mind of the artist is the human form. ' The arts which 
distinguish man from the lower animals are of the two kinds 
we have spoken of — resemblances to the form of the horse 



THE HOKSE. 



137 



and imitations of the masterpiece of creation. And as the 
works of art first mentioned are the appurtenances of a man, 
along with the vessel that contains his food and with the house 
and clothing that contain his body, we see why the horse and 
the artist should resemble each other. 

The horse is the standard of beauty by which to compare 
all forms of the animal creation. This is an honor, truly. It 
is rendered on account of the symmetry which he possesses 
in common with man. As things symmetrical are harmoni- 
ous (on which account mankind are inclined to become one), 
the horse and his rider are remarkably fitted to each other, 
and present an example of " unity of 
design." Where the two had a spe- 
cial resemblance to each other, they 
would seem blended into one ; and 
hence the centaurs, as represented in 
ancient works of art, had 
a more natural origin 
than the mere habit of 
the inhabitants of Mount 
Pelion spending a great 
portion of their time on 
horseback ; for no one 
would think of uniting 
a man and a donkey, 
though the former should ride the latter for ever. Mount 
Pelion was fn Thessaly, and the Thessalians were celebrated 
riders ; hence men and horses were particularly fitted to each 
other, and might be represented as one by those who under- 
stood the principle of symmetry; and that they were called 
" Centaurs," or " Bull-killers," is further proof of this, for the 
Thessalians were accustomed to hunt the bull on horseback. 
When the Indians first saw the Spaniards on horseback, they 
saw them as centaurs ; they beheld in the man and the horse 
a single creature, and experience was necessary to enable 
them to distinguish between them. 

Parts that are symmetrical can not be separated without 
violence. Even when the spirit has departed, it is sacrilege 




138 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



to divide the body — much more when the soul, whose unity 
is indicated by that of the body, is present in it. It could 
not be permitted to man to commit so horrible a sacrilege as 
to break a bone of the body of our Savior. One feels that it 
would be a kind of profanation to break the statue of a perfect 
human form, and hence the immortality of a work of art : — 

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." 

Unity is something to rejoice in ; it 
is the attribute of God : and man is 
created in his image, to be an artist, 
and to finish the Creator's most per- 
fect work. 

Let it be understood that art is no 
more "strained" than the "quality 
of mercy." There is room for its ex- 
ercise when there is no skill in the 
chisel or the brush. Hence a per- 
son who is not called an artist may have more resemblance to 
a horse than one who is. The highest expression of art is the 
highest beauty to which he is capable of attaining. In this 
animal, which we compare with Melancthon, what an admi- 





THE HORSE. 139 

rable illustration of symmetry do we behold ! and bow this 
effect is increased by the appreciation of the line of beauty 
in the action of the animal — in his curveting, his flexure of 
the joints, his motion of the legs, his holding of the tail, his 
curvature of the neck, and last and most beautiful of all, his 
looking at himself to see the elegance of his form and the 
gracefulness of his movements ! This corresponds to that 
which in man may be called self-examination — the highest 
action of the reasoning and moral faculties combined — from 
which proceeds humility instead of pride, true dignity instead 
of arrogance — so nearly do opposite faculties and their signs 
approach each other! 

The horse, by his resemblance to the artist, is related to 
the sun (which pencils and paints), to every halo, to the rain- 
bow, the morning dawn, and the thousand reflections from 
the face of Nature that charm the eye with the beauty of 
form and color ! The sun's horses are fiery and fleet, and 
could never be driven without reins ; and it has never entered 




the mind of man to substitute asses in their stead. Oxen ma} 
be yoked to the moon, which ascends the horizon like a loaded 
wain, but the chariot of the sun must be drawn by horses. 
As the difference between the beauty of objects in moonlight 
and of objects in sunlight, so is the difference between Eng- 
lish art and Italian. The former is soft and subdued, and has 
the air of stillness and repose ; but the latter presents the 
strongest contrast of light and shade, and has all the charac- 
teristics of the garish day. It is one of the peculiarities of 
the horse, which we have often observed, that a shade in a* 
broad sunlight is especially pleasing to him, and it is equally 



140 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



true that the cow enjoys herself in the moonlight much more 

than the horse. 

The fire of genius, the glance that penetrates creation, the 

intellect that searches through all things and beholds high 

and low, correspond to the 
rays of the sun, and also to 
the horse, in the flash of his 
eye, and the bearing of his 
head, as he flies over the plain 
inspired by the love of free- 
dom and by the will of a mas- 





ter who breathes a noble spirit like his own. Is not this horse, 
that resembles Rammohun Roy, and that might pass for one 
of the horses of the sun, a fine example? 

This splendid intellect, this noble soul, born and educated 
to the religion of Brahma, dispelled by its radiance the dark- 
ness of superstition. He laid noble plans for reforming the 
religion of his countrymen, and published a work "Against 
the Idolatry of all Religions." In one of his works occurs 
the following sentence : " The consequence of my long and 
uninterrupted researches into religious truth has been, that I 
have found the doctrines of Christ more conducive to moral 
principles, and better adapted to the use of rational beings, 
than any other which have come to my knowledge." He ac- 
quired a knowledge of Sanscrit and other languages, that he 
might acquaint himself with ancient and different religions ; 
and having studied the Scriptures in Greek and Hebrew, he 
published a work entitled "The Precepts of Jesus the Guide 
to Peace and Happiness." 

" In April, 1831, the rajah, accompanied by his youngest 



THE HORSE. 



141 



eon, arrived in England, where he was received with every 
mark of distinction and respect. In every kind of assem- 
blage, religious, political, literary, and social, the amenity of 
his manners, his distinguished attainments, and his universal 
philanthropy, rendered him a welcome guest ; and his advice 
was sought by the English ministers on topics connected with 
the future government of India. He did not, however, live 
to carry into effect the various plans for improving the condi- 
tion of his countrymen, whose welfare he had so much at 
heart, having been taken ill while on a visit at Bristol, where 
he expired in October, 1833." 

A very different ambition from that presented opposite is 
exhibited by these animals, scrabbling to get ahead of each 




other. They are like their masters, or rather like what their 
masters were when they set out in the race — or rather (beg- 
ging their pardon) they are themselves the masters, and their 
riders resemble them. It is always so with those who 



throw loose rein 



Upon the neck of headlong Appetite" — 

the animal gains the mastery. It is a low ambition that is 
indicated by such postures as these : it implies a doubt in the 
actors whether they will be behind or before, which can never 
be said of an artist, or of a man of noble ambition. The am 



U2 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



bition of the man having nothing manly in it fails, while 
that of the horse keeps on. The horse and his rider on the 
right side resemble each other before, and they on the left 
side resemble each other behind. A jockey picks out such 
an animal to go to the race as suits him best, and that animal 
he resembles. People who run their horses for sport, and 
drive them poor and lame, and break them down, and work 
them till they fall down dead, are, like those two fellows on 
horseback, as cowardly as they are cruel ; and the horses that 
are marked to be the victims of such have their tails cropped, 
that their torment may be enhanced by the stings of insects. 
The connection between cowardice and cruelty was explained 
in the chapter on the vulture ; and the persons we are speak- 
ing of resemble carrion-birds, and their perverted horses have 
something of the same features. It is customary with such 
persons to cultivate crossness and cowardice in their horses 
by special training. They are fond of an impure atmosphere, 
and of fermented drink; and sweating race-riders in a dung- 
hill, to reduce their weight, is an invention worthy of those 
who resemble vultures. They clip the tail of a horse to show 
that he has the talent for "clipping it down" — the chief 
value in their eyes. Out on such artists ! 

We have here presented a quiet little pony, that has a good 

master — children of Mature both. 
What a suitable horse for this per- 
son to ride ! The symmetry of the 





pony is diminished by roundness, but in this it comports with 
the beauty of youth, as in the features of young Edward VI, 



THE HOKSE. 



143 



who must have inherited this classic style of countenance (in 
which there is so much of purity and refinement) from his 
mother, Jane Seymour, rather than from his father, Henry 
VIII. Features like those just given have the promise of per- 
fect symmetry when the individual has arrived at maturity: 
hence they perfectly satisfy the artist, as do also the outlines 
of a pony which indicate his fitness to be the pet and servant 
of a child. 

The resemblance of certain people to asses is too frequently 
spoken of to allow us to pass this animal in silence. He has 





a trumpet of his own, which he will blow if we neglect to 
speak of him. Shakspere has hit at a characteristic trait of 
the person who resembles an ass, in making the stupid fellow 
whom he disguised wn'th an ass's head say : — 

" Scratch my head , Peas-blossom. Where 's Mustard-seed ?" 
And to the question of Mustard-seed, " What's your will ?" — 
"Nothing, monsieur, but to help cavaliero Peas-blossom to 
scratch." For, to tell the truth, the person who resembles an ass 
looks always as if he were sitting up to have his head exam- 
ined, which, of course, implies the necessity of somebody " sit- 
ting up" to examine heads. He has as strong an inclination to 
one as to the other, for he wishes to " do as he would be done 
by." He is as much like the artist and the reasoner as the 
ass is like the horse, or as the brain is like the face, which 
means simply that they are near to each other — an illustra- 
tion of the principle that " extremes meet." He is for making 



lte 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



himself " thorough in the rudiments ;" requiring eternally to 
settle the question whether there be such a thing as a founda- 
tion, before he will consent to look at the superstructure. His 
attention is occupied with the premises as the objects of chief 
importance, and hence he never gets beyond them. Jle will 
not look at reason, though you thrust it before his eyes ; and 
though a fact as plain as the nose on a man's face be presented 
to him, he will deny it ! 




In contrast with this, we here present a man of lofty reason, 
who resembles a horse. And is not a horse like this, that 

looks like one of Aurora's, fit to 
resemble an astronomer, a bold 
and original genius, like Sir 
Isaac Newton, one who stands 
as it were in the centre of the 
solar system, and darts his rays 
thence,and comprehends all the 
relationsand dependencies with 
the facility and perfection of a 
master ? Would you not place 
such a horse as tliat on vantage 
ground ? He looks as if he were standing on a hill, overlook- 
ing " the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them." 




THE TURKEY. 



145 



CHAPTER XXI, 



It is funny that a certain fowl should receive the good- 
natured diminutive which we apply to a small, pocket edition 
of the Turk, and to the country he inhabits. It is not always 
that a name is significant, but in the present instance it is pe- 
culiarly so, for " Turk" and " turkey" are as much alike as 
the characters to which they are applied ; and we attach a 
dignity to the former, derived from a feeling of reverence, 
while to the latter we connect the idea of ridiculous familiar- 
ity. The turkey is too much like the Turk (who seems to be 
entirely unconscious of the position 
in which we have placed him) to 
be teased by an allusion to the in- 
dividual to whom he bears so strong 
a resemblance. He has already be- 





gun to strut, young as he is, and to exercise authority, but 
when he meets with a stronger than himself he is equally a 
pattern of submission. The sign of his extraordinary love of 
command is the muscular appendage at the top of the bill, 
where the sign of command is in the human face ; and when 

10 



116 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

the faculty is in exercise, this muscle is contracted, and when 
it is quiescent the muscle hangs loosely over the end of the 
bill. The activity of the faculty is accompanied with an ex- 
ercise of attack- — a command and a blow — the dicta, " Hum- 
ble yourself, and be my slave !" This is the trait of character 
most remarkable in the Turk. He makes a slave of every 
person whom he can force to acknowledge the right of the 
strongest, and to all others he is submissive to the last degree. 
To gratify his authority, more than to satisfy his lust, he pur- 
chases a large number of wives, for wives in all countries are 
bound to " obey." 

The sign of submission in the turkey is that fold of skin 
which everybody has seen hanging down under the throat, 
and which answers to the dewlap in the cow. The Turks are 
like the English in reference to both authority and submission, 
only that in the former these two traits are still more extraor- 
dinary. The government of a sultan and a religion propa- 
gated by the sword are natural to them, and they feel no 
jealousy toward republicanism, for the simple reason that 
their country is not the soil upon which it can grow. Tolera- 
tion, therefore, may take root there, and Liberty may find a 
home. 

If the eye be the " window of the soul," the spirit of the 
Turk must be fond of shadow, for not much light can enter 
its habitation through such windows as those. There is a 
certain drowsy dullness expressed in them, like what we see 
in the turkey, especially while young. It reminds one of 
windows smeared with dirt, through which midday is con- 
verted into twilight ; and the young turkey has an air about 
him well suited to confirm the impression that it is night 
within, and that the inhabitants are sleeping. There is some- 
thing in the nature of the Turk that draws the curtains over 
bis eyes ; perhaps it is bigotry : at all events he is very indif- 
ferent to light. Houses in Turkey, that make a grand show 
of windows at a distance, are found on approach to be bricked 
up in the places where light was supposed to be admitted. 
It is from this disposition in the Turk to make a show of glass 
without the reality, that makes his eye itself a sort of blind 



THE TURKEY. 



147 



window. Certainly he is inclined to receive implicitly what 

Mohammed has told him, and to be as thoroughly hoodwinked 

as this hawk is that he holds 

on his arm, and about which 

he seems to be pronouncing a 

discourse. 

But his eyes are held a while 
in order that he may see more 
clearly, and may use them to 
better advantage : external light 
and external objects are shut 
out, that he may have the light 
of truth, and may exercise his 
reason. "When this shall be, he 
will bear a resemblance to birds 
of powerful wing, as the hawk 
and the eagle. The gradations 
from the turkey to the eagle are 
miserable, hard, and difficult. 
First, he will resemble the tur- 
key-buzzard — then the stork — 
then the vulture — then the ea- 
gle. But the philosophy of this 
transition we can not stop now 
to describe. Suffice it to say 
that the quality of strength in the turkey is tough, grasping, 
and firm, and altogether like that of the eagle ; and that 
strength and vigor of the same nature are characteristic of 
the Turk. 

The poppy is to the vegetable kingdom what the turkey is 
to the animal, and the Turk resembles them both. The tur- 
ban resembles poppy-leaves, and the head containing the seed 
is like that of the Turk. There is a connection between 
"Turkey opium" and the drowsiness of those eyes. As sleep 
is more appropriate to children than to grown people, the 
eyes of young turkeys are particularly sleepy; they have not 
waked up yet ; and the same expression in the eyes of the 
Turk indicates that there is vast promise of something worth 




148 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

seeing for which the eyesight is being reserved. Opium is 
suited to the idiosyncracy of the Turk, and hence he can 
smoke it with comparative impunity ; and children can bear 
this drug better than adults, for the simple reason that much 
sleep is natural to them. If there is a strong tendency to 
sleep, and the person is kept awake by pain, an opiate in ex- 
act proportion to the sleepiness does not act as poison ; but if 
it is taken to produce sleepiness, or simply to subdue pain, it 
is deadly. If physicians and other people did but know this, 
how much suffering and death would be avoided ! 

The Turk and the turkey resemble the Arab and the Camel. 
The Turk inclines partly to inhabit Arabia, and of course to 
rule there, for his love of command is as unbounded as that 
of the turkey. Yet he receives his religion from the Arab, 
thus acknowledging his inferiority — as the turkey, if he w r ere 
endowed with reason, must needs acknowledge his inferiority 
to the camel, and at the same time desire to rule him. The 
turkey is slovenly in his eating, as the camel is ; he " gobbles 
down" his food, and this manner of eating is to be observed 
in connection with the voice in the person who resembles the 
gobbler. The young bird peeps with his voice as well as with 
his eyes ; and the same principle is true of the old bird in 
respect to gobbling, for the eyes are connected with the appe- 
tite for food, and they gobble also. The characteristic of the 
eye, the voice, and the appetite, is want of discrimination, 
and this is connected with the love of eommand. In respect 
to his voice, it is — " Hussle 'em out!" and his actions at the 
moment respond heartily to this sentiment ; in respect to the 
eyes, it is — "Hussle 'em about!" a sentiment to which his 
movements, his display of feathers, and his whole body, re- 
spond ; in respect to his appetite, it is — "Hussle 'em in!" 
and it is no sooner said than done. 

This is the manner in which the Turk receives and delivers 
his sentiments. In respect to faith, he " eats what is set be- 
fore him, asking no questions, for conscience' sake ;" and 
what he eats he thinks is good enough for others, and he is 
sure to offer it to them ; it is not the love of proselyting, or 
the love of command merely, but it it is partly hospitality, 



THE TURKEY. 



149 



that prompts him to do so. In the young Turk faith is more 
blind than in the old ; and the eyes, like the faculties of the 
mind, are peeping. In this 
portrait of the present sultan 
of Turkey, Abdul-Medjid, 
the eyes are of this descrip- 
tion, resembling those of a 
young turkey. From such 
features we might expect a 
great deal if the eyes were 
open, and were not continu- 
ally peeping after their own 
interests. The young tur- 
key's voice peeps incessant- 
ly, and so do his eyes. Louis 
Napoleon's eyes are of the 
same character, except that 
they are carnivorous, and re- 
semble more the eyes of a turkey-buzzard or a stork. Such 
eyes can have faith in the dreams of the alchemists, and can 
engage in a search for the philosopher's stone, confident of 
filling coffers with gold and of creating an inexhaustible treas- 
ury, as was the case with the individual last mentioned. 
But let us glance at some of the more obvious, external re- 
semblances between the 
turkey and the Turk. 
There is a great abun- 





150 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



dance and looseness of dress, and freedom of all parts of the 
"body, and thus a remarkably dowdy appearance, in the one 
biped as well as in the other. The sort of tippet that hangs 
from the breast of the turkey reminds us of something pecu- 
liar in the dress of the Turk, and the Turkish cloak and trow- 
sers are amazingly in keeping with the feathers of the turkey 
when he displays them to the best advantage. We may call 
him a foolish bird, and say that there is no use to call him so, 
for that — 

" Pride steps in to his defence, 

And fills up all the mighty void of sense" — 

and this is true of the Turk. But he is also too proud to be 
mean ; he is honorable and sincere ; he eschews cunning and 
hypocrisy ; you see no cunning in either the turkey or the 
Turk. If he is in power, he bids defiance to all the world. 
It is only when his challenge is accepted that he acknowl- 
edges a superior. But he does not fight. The moment he is 
not the master, he is the slave. He has the highest possible 
respect for " the powers that be ;" so that he has a certain 
"sublime port" about him whether he be the sultan or not. 

Among the many excellent traits of the turkey we will 
mention only this, the instinct to cure disease. He is a doc- 
tor, and all the young turkeys that are born in a state of 
nature have to be dosed and drugged before they can 

" Wheel about, and turn about, and do just so, 
And every time they wheel about jump Jim Crow"— 

for this kind of exercise 
makes people sick, and 
the turkey practises up- 
on the principle that an 
ounce of prevention is 
w r orth a pound of cure. 
The doctor we have on 
the opposite page is not 
a juvenile turkey : the 
" windows of his soul" 
are open ; he is not a Turk, but he is like one, and wears a 




THE TURKEY. 



151 



turban from a sense of what is becoming to him, or from nat- 
ural choice, and he looks enough like the turkey to be said 
to have a strong family like- 
ness to that bird. You ma} 7 
be sure that he is a good 
physician, that he has very 
great desire to be honored 
and to " render honor to 
whom honor is due," and 
that he is exceedingly hon- 
orable. That he is proud, 
and would make the cow- 
ardly slaves tremble, and 
that he is so ambitious of 
esteem that he is the first to 
set the example, or to do him- 
self reverence, and that he 
is not afraid to solicit the honor he is entitled to, can not be 
denied ; but he endeavors to merit the grand object of his 
desires, and that gives him an unusual degree of merit, so 
that those who see his good qualities overlook his egotism, 
and consider his pride and vanity as spots on the sun, that 
diminish nothing from the splendor of his beams. Who could 
expect anything contrary to this in the man who resembles 
the turkey, or, what is very nearly the same thing, the Turk ? 
By wishing to resemble the great and honorable, he pays 
them a compliment, and himself too. 




152 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



The turkey has a rival. The peacock can outvie him in 
splendor, but not in pride ; in vain-glory, but not in ambition 
to excel. That the dispositions which are prominent in the 
peacock have their seat in the human breast, has been too 
often observed to require a formal argument in proof of the 
assertion. We shall therefore proceed to the comparison of 
certain persons with the peacock sans ceremonie. Whoever 
resembles this bird ought to possess qualities worthy of admi- 
ration, and also an extraordinary degree of the love of admi- 
ring and of being admired. No one need be told that in the 
;,ournure and entire air and manner of this lady there is an 

imitation of the peacock 
— the skirt flows behind 
in an ethereal beauty 
that is better imagined 
than represented in ink, 
and that will admit of 
no comparison but to 
the tail of the peacock ; 
the neck and chest seem 
glistening with varied 
hues, as they turn to 
catch the rays of the 
sun in different direc- 
tions ; the head is wor- 
thy of a queen, and the 
eye is heavenly. This, 
at least, is the idea intended to be conveyed. In every part 
of the peacock there is something delectable ; his flesh was 
as highly pleasing to the epicurean tastes of the Romans as 




THE PEACOCK. 153 

his external appearance is pleasing to the artistic taste of the 
most polished and refined. 

Those who cultivate the appearance and manners of the 
peacock, possess the same traits of character — the same im- 
pulses, motives, and promptings — modified, of course, by the 
faculties that are peculiarly human. The beauty which sur- 
rounds them is an outbirth of an innate appreciation of the 
beautiful, together with the love of self; and hence they ad- 
mire it with the fervency of self-love. In other words, they 
admire nothing so much as themselves : they are filled with 
vanity, and they believe that they are equally admired by 
others; or, if not, they desire to be, and they do all in their 
power to eclipse the beauty of every other object. They vie 
with each other- for the reason that there would be no glory 
without conquest ; but they are too conscious of their power, 
and admire themselves too much, to feel any great degree of 
jealousy for a rival beauty. Peacocks vie with each other, 
and there is a sort of self-love in this, for together they form 
a galaxy of stars, the glory of which is the property of each, 
so that each one may boast of the splendor of the whole as if 
it were his own. This is a degree of refinement of self-love, 
however, to which the literal peacock is incapable of arriving, 
and for this simple reason : in this degree of selfishness there 
is the opportunity and the demand that man should love his 
neighbor as himself. What a beautiful superstructure, then, 
may be reared upon a resemblance to the peacock ! what a 
magnificent temple of humanity ! But we shall see more of 
this by-and-by. 

It is evident enough that there are very many people who 
resemble peacocks ; but the resemblance in physiognomy 
which indicates the resemblance in character is not easily 
described. The most expressive things are the most inex- 
pressible. Besides, it very frequently happens that the per- 
son who resembles the peacock loses himself in dress and 
equipage, like the peacock in the splendor and magnificence 
of his plumage. Nevertheless, there is to be discovered a 
similarity in countenance, particularly in the eye. In the 
following portrait of a Persian the resemblance is expressed, 



154 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



Dot only in the features, but in a look that is inexpressible, 
except by the idea that is conveyed of this magnificent fowl. 




^.^r 



The fashion of that beard more, even, than the quantity, re- 
minds us of the words, "Thou hast more hair on thy chin, 
than Dobbin, my fill-horse, has on his tail." What could be 
more peacock-like than the nose, the eyes, the softly-feathered 
head and even the beard spreading all around, like rays, and 
dyed according to the taste of the owner ? And if so much 
can be conveyed in an engraving, how much more might be 
done with colors ! The Persians, be it observed, are in the 
habit of staining their beards, and in one stage of the process 
it is a brilliant red, in which stage the vulgar class prefer to 
leave it. The Persians are, in fact, wonderfully like the pea- 
cock in character and externals. Whatever comes to us from 
Persia conveys this impression. Their fabrics, in the quality 



THE PEACOCK. 155 

of their construction, and in the form and color of their fig- 
ures, are like the head, neck, body, and tail, of the peacock, 
and outvie those of every other country : all things together, 
they are magnificent in the extreme. The Persians are de- 
lighted with positive colors, and with the bold, glaring, daz- 
zling, glittering effects that are produced by them, in contra- 
distinction from the neutral tints, which they have no taste 
for. They rival the peacock in the wide field which they 
demand for the display of their persons, in the splendor of 
their attire, and in everything that surrounds them. 

In every country, those who resemble the peacock rival 
their beau-ideal in the circumference of their skirts, and in 
the train they carry behind them. The peacock elevates his 
tail, or depresses it, according to his caprice; and sometimes, 
when he lives in town, where he is a miserable bird, he trails 
it in the dirt : and so it is with those who resemble him. As 
to sweeping the ground with beauty that is fit to be elevated 
among the stars, it is indispensable to those daws that borrow 
the tail of the peacock in order to be fashionable, and have 
no power to elevate it. But the person who resembles the 
peacock should not defile his garments. He is worse than 
the pretender if he does, because he is capable of higher 
things. It is worse to profane heavenly things than to act 
the hypocrite ; and the person who resembles the peacock, 
and understands the correspondence of its plumage, is capa- 
ble of a lower degree of degradation, venality, and crime, 
than the person who does not. 

The distinguishing features of the Persians are all included 
in their resemblance to the peacock. The fondness for ex- 
travagant display implies a love of riches, for the reason that 
these extravagances require wealth, and are termed rich and 
costly. Diamonds, gold, and gems, the property of the 
wealthy, form an essential part of this splendor and magnifi- 
cence. The Persians have a passion for these things. The 
means for gratifying it can come by no natural process, but 
must be obtained by some diabolical incantation, or by the 
help of some " good genius that turns everything into gold/' 
They are properly limited to a few ; and when vast numbers 



156 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

have the desire for princely wealth and splendor, as is the 
case in Persia, they resort to dishonest, artful, magical con- 
trivances, to gain their end. As a matter of course, all of 
them have the ambition to be courtiers, and to get as near to 
royalty as possible. Courtiers in Persia are very numerous, 
and of this class Mr. Fraser says : " Dissimulation and flat- 
tery are their chief study ; their minds are occupied with in- 
trigue, and their time in amassing, by the most flagitious 
methods, that wealth which their extravagance requires." 

Poverty must necessarily accompany this extravagance and 
this unnatural production of the means of gratifying it. The 
Persians spend everything upon their backs, and therefore 
their wealth is superficial, and its influence is of short dura- 
tion. Their income is never equal to their fondness for admi- 
ration, and falls as far below their love of splendor and parade 
as their heads fall below the rainbow in the sky, or as much 
as the noddle of the peacock is beneath its tail when the lat- 
ter is elevated to an imitation of the rainbow. They run in 
debt, they borrow, they substitute tinsel for gold, they cheat, 
and they steal, all for the sake of " keeping up appearances." 
They prey upon each other; a display of wealth is a tempta- 
tion to a stronger to come and seize it : hence they are divided 
between a desire of displaying whatever wealth they may be 
possessed of and a fear of losing it. They complain of pov- 
erty, at the same time that they make a show of the opposite, 
wishing to keep their neighbors in a state of dubiousness as 
to the real state of their finances. But their love of dazzling 
the eyes of beholders is so great, that the poverty they com- 
plain of is as sure to come as the glories which the peacock 
displays are sure to fall. It is only when " riches take to 
themselves wings and fly away" that they shine in all the 
lustre and beauty which the Persian so greatly admires. 

"As birds 

When mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes 
Expanded, shine with azure, green, and gold, 
So blessings brighten as they take their flight." 

And the Persians would do nothing to lessen the brightness 
of those blessings which they so ardently crave. Says Char- 



THE FEACOCK. 157 

din : "They are the greatest spendthrifts in the world ; they 
can not keep their money; let them receive ever so much, it 
is immediately spent. ' Let the shah, for example, give one 
of them fifty thousand or one hundred thousand livres, in fif 
teen days it will all be disposed of. He buys slaves of either 
sex ; seeks out for mistresses ; sets up a grand establishment ; 
dresses and furnishes sumptuously; and expends at a rate 
which, unless other means present themselves, renders him 
speedily penniless. In less than two months we see our gen- 
tleman commencing to get quit of all his finery : his horses 
go first ; then his supernumerary servants ; then his mistres- 
ses : then, one by one, his slaves ; and, finally, piece by piece, 
his clothes." 

Thus suddenly rises the tail of the peacock, like a halo of 
glory, and thus fades the glory from the sky when the pride 
that caused it has expended itself in the accomplishment of 
the grand design ! And this is not regarded by the Persian 
as a misfortune, for it is natural to him. The rising and falling 
are in proportion to each other : — 

"As well expect eternal suns and cloudless skies" 

as that such a tail as the peacock possesses should be con- 
stantly elevated, or that such a fortune as the Persian delights 
in should be for ever in the ascendant. The base interpreta- 
tion of the doctrine that " he that exalteth himself shall be 
abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted," is 
exhibited in the Persian. Alternations of humility and pride 
are natural to him ; but as his humility is the result of his 
pride, and as his pride is not based upon humility, he is too 
literal in his resemblance to the peacock, and is no illustra- 
tion of the heavenly things which the beauties of the peacock 
correspond to. The splendor that surrounds him is born of 
prosperity and adversity, as the rainbow is born of sunshine 
and shower; and its height is in the brief interval between 
the extremes of each, as the hues of Iris are most beautiful 
when the mists are thin and the sun is descending. His de- 
lights are the product of the union of opposites ; and as pros- 
perity and misfortune are the mutual causes of his happiness, 



158 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

he has a sort of filial affection for them both. This is one of 
the reasons why he represents himself on the one hand to be 
poor and miserable, and on the other to be "rich, and in- 
creased in goods, and in need of nothing." He has no sensi- 
bility to disgrace : he can plead poverty as a recommendation 
to favor as easily as he can present beanty as a claim to it. 
He is as mean in his humility as he is arrogant in his pride. 
He is demoralized by the government more than by his own 
degree of the peacock propensity, for those who are in power 
have this propensity in greater excess than the governed. 
Says Mr. Fraser : — 

" A minister or governor offends the shah, or is made the 
object of accusation, justly or unjustly. He is condemned, 
perhaps unheard ; his property is confiscated ; his slaves are 
given to others ; his family and wives are insulted, perhaps 
given over to the brutality of grooms and feroshes ; and his 
person is maltreated with blows, or mutilated by the execu- 
tioner's knife. Nothing can be imagined more complete than 
such a degradation; nothing, one would imagine, could be 
more poignant than his anguish, or more deep and deadly 
than his hatred and thirst for revenge. Yet these reverses 
are considered merely as among the casualties of service, as 
clouds obscuring for a while the splendor of courtly fortune, 
but which will soon pass away, and permit the sun of pros- 
perity to shine again in its fullest lustre ; and experience 
proves that these calculations are correct, for the storm often 
blows by as rapidly as it comes on. Royal caprice receives 
the sufferer again into favor; his family is sent back to him, 
with such of his slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, 
pruned of all dangerous exuberance, is returned. A bath 
mollifies his bruised feet ; a cap conceals his cropped ears ; 
a Jchelut covers the multitude of sins and stains, and proves 
a sovereign remedy for all misfortunes ; and the whitewashed 
culprit is often reinstated in the very government he had lost, 
perhaps carrying with him a sentence of disgrace to his sue 
cessor, to whose intrigues he owed his temporary fall." 

Could such things exist in any other country than Persia, 
or be said of any other people than of those who resemble 



THE PEACOCK. 159 

peacocks? The Persians are so insensible to disgrace, that 
" to give the lie directly is not deemed an insult. l JB!en du- 
rough ustf (' It is a lie') is as common an expression, used 
without offence from one Persian to another, as ' Gou Jchourd'* 
(' He has eaten filth,' equivalent to ' He has lied') is in speak- 
ing of another, even in the highest ranks." It is impossible 
that insensibility to disgrace alone could account for this : it 
is to be accounted for partly by the fact that lying is natural 
to them by virtue of their resemblance to the peacock, which 
implies a love for " false and deceptive appearances." — " Be- 
lieve me, for, though a Persian, I am speaking truth," is a 
common exclamation to those who doubt their veracity. What 
is this but a profession that a Persian has a right to speak 
falsehood ? And so he has, if he is to resemble the peacock 
literally. Who does not see in the heavenly hues and deli- 
cate fringes of that sweeping train something supernal, and 
does not transfer them in his imagination to a being far more 
worthy of them than this foolish, good-for-nothing fowl? The 
man who imagines that he is that person, and attempts to 
rival the peacock, deceives himself, and blazons a falsehood 
before the eyes of all who see him. He deceives himself and 
others with the idea that he is a superior being : thus he adds 
profanation to falsehood. If he can be guilty of the former, 
it is not strange that he will as readily admit that he is a liar 
as anything else. 

Where everything is outside show, what can there be of 
worth within ? How hollow-hearted, vain, fickle, and capri- 
cious, the people must be who resemble the peacock, and who 
do not convert this resemblance into a correspendence of the 
graces which the most exquisite beauty consists in ! Lavish- 
ing everything upon external accomplishments, intent upon 
enlarging his dimensions, cutting a wide -swell, and requiring 
room for his dress as the peacock does for his tail, the Persian 
must of necessity be heartless, coarse, and vulgar. He ex- 
erts his utmost to convert himself into the form of a bubble 
that is transparent, beautifully colored, and is sure to burst. 
Vastness and splendor are the thoughts that occupy him, and 
they vastate him of everything pure, refined, and noble. You 



160 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



can see the peacock strut in his legs, solar effulgence in bis 
body, and unbounded self-admiration in his eye. Such a 

body is formed to cre- 
ate a vacuum, and to 
draw everything after 
it, as with his tail the 
great red dragon drew 
down the third part of 
heaven, and the stars, 
in imitation, it may be, 
of the peacock ! 

The resemblance of 
the Persian ladies to 
their embodied divinity 
is as literal as that of 
the men. They are un- 
scrupulous in painting 
their faces — using va- 
rious colors for that pur- 
pose — and stajn their 
nails with henna, and 
print fanciful figures on 
their persons by tattoo- 
ing, besides setting the 
example of that kind of 
dress that is appropriated chiefly by females w T ho are destitute 
of modesty and virtue. If the men are coarse and vulgar, 
the women are more so, for the perversion is greater. "They 
are utterly wanting," says the last-mentioned authority, " in 
all that delicacy of sentiment and language w T hich is the 
charm of females in more refined countries; and, ignorant of 
what we consider propriety, they express themselves on all 
subjects with disgusting grossness." Their passion for exter- 
nal beauty is like that of the peacock : it is no proof of a love 
of that which this beauty conceals, and which it is intended 
to express. The peacock, with his beautiful plumage, is a 
vulgar bird, and is regarded with disrespect. The reason 
why the pheasant and the bird of paradise are not so regarded 




THE PEACOCK. 161 

is that they make no display of their attractions, but wear 
them modestly, and thus gracefully, like one who is made 
more conspicuous by her beauty than she desires. In a bird 
that shows his feathers as if he were admiring himself in a 
glass, and were practising manners before it, the glancing 
and varying hues remind us of fickleness and insincerity. 
They indicate something unworthy of confidence, and which 
therefore it is not possible to feel an affection for. The pea- 
cock race are admired, but not loved. They are arrogant and 
overbearing when they have the ability to be so ; and when 
they have not, they are as polished in manners, as lively and 
acute, as mild and courteous, as they are deceitful and treach- 
erous. Such is described to be the character of the Persian 
court; and when we see the peacock displaying himself, we 
receive an impression of corresponding dispositions and quali- 
ties in the bird. 

The peacock is beautiful in the extreme, and is regarded 
with extreme admiration. But the extreme of beauty k 
most external ; it is the least substantial, and the farthest re- 
moved from love, which is the centre ; it has no sensitiveness, 
no tenderness ; it is destitute of heart and soul ; it is fading 
and transitory; it is driven forth to the outskirts ; it is just 
upon the borders of Cimmerian darkness; and its "passing 
away" is represented in the extreme beauty of the extremity 
of the long tail of the peacock. What, then, must be the 
character of those who spend their lives in admiration of the 
extreme of beauty? Their souls are spent, wasted, in the 
object of their lives ; and their lives are wasted ; and they 
expire in darkness. Vying with others in dress and in mere 
brilliancy of eyes and complexion, admiring themselves su- 
premely and seeking the extreme admiration of others, court- 
ing flatteries and delighted with adulation, they are the vic- 
tims of those whose tastes are as superficial and whose pro- 
fessions are as hollow as their own ; and in the specious ap- 
pearance of love, purity, sincerity, devotion, and honor, they 
Buffer an entire loss of them all. 

If this be so, what becomes of the principle that external 
beauty corresponds to internal ? If internal beauty shows 

11 



l62 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

itself in beauty of the outside, how is it that the Persians, 
the Circassians, the Georgians, and others that might be men- 
tioned, are not better? Why was the beautiful marchioness 
de Brinvillier such a fiend incarnate ? Byron has said, some- 
what spitefully and somewhat truly: — 

"Your thief looks in the crowd 

Exactly like the rest, or rather better; 

'T is only at the bar, or in the dungeon, 

That wise men know your felon by his features." 

It should be observed, however, that in all these cases men 
are not guided by a knowledge of the signs of character in 
the face, but are captivated by the extreme of beauty, which 
consists of " false and deceptive appearances," and are such 
as are discovered in the peacock. Besides that, those who 
resemble this bird have great power of art, as those have 
who resemble the horse; and as the highest art is perfection, 
or the extreme of beauty, its perversion is the extreme of 
falsehood and deception. In all nature, the beauty we are 
speaking of is unsubstantial and idle — as in the rainbow, the 
flower, and the butterfly. A sunbeam glancing on water, or 
darting through crystal, is not the index of a soul ; the greater 
the distance of an object, or the more extreme, the more de- 
ceptive is its appearance. We are sure to be taken by peo- 
ple at a distant view of them, or when they make their first 
impression upon us through the medium of some disguise ; 
but we find afterward that — 

" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, 
And robes the mountain in its azure hue !" 

or, as to the disguises, and to be more particular as to the 
traits of character we discover — 

" So the blue summit of some mountain height, 
Wrapped in gay clouds, deludes the distant sight; 
But as with gazing eyes we draw more near, 
Fades the false scene, and the rough rocks appear.'* 

But we are very likely to ascribe the deception from this 
cause to the object itself, when in fact the object makes no 
pretensions to be anything but what it really is, and the de- 



THE PEACOCK. 163 

ception lies in ourselves and in the circumstances. Besides, 
the object at hand may be far better than the "false scene" 
which we admired at first; but disappointment or pride may 
prevent us from acknowledging this, and thus many a worthy 
person is injured and abused to his face by those who admired 
him at a distance. 

The exterior beauty which corresponds to the interior, and 
by which we can read the character, is something intrinsic, 
at the same time that it is exterior; whereas, the extreme of 
beauty that we are speaking of is extrinsic, superficial, or less 
than that, a mere gilding of the surface. By the interior we 
mean the soul, and by the exterior the body (including the 
signs of all the faculties), which is an index of the former : by 
the external we mean the hue and complexion, the garments, 
the manners, and the external accomplishments ; and by the 
internal we mean something more excellent than the soul — 
something central, the index of which is the highest and most 
transcendent beauty. Thus heaven is within, and heaven is 
above. The sky, where the azure, the gold, and everything in 
the plumage of the peacock, are most displayed, is heaven, and 
heaven is within the soul : it is there that man may hold com- 
munion with God and with angels, and yet the dwelling-place 
of these is above, in the region of that extreme beauty which 
is paradise, in like manner as the soul is in the body. How 
sweet and wonderful ! how intensely we realize it, and yet 
how incomprehensible it is ! 

The resemblance of the Persians to the peacock fits them 
for the highest perfection to which human beings can aspire. 
But they attain to the very opposite. " Pomp and ceremony 
are the delight of all Persians. They form, in fact, a part of 
the system of government, which is considered indispensable 
to the maintenance of authority. They term the gorgeous 
magnificence that surrounds their kings and rulers the 'cloth- 
ing of the state.' — c Yon may speak to the ears of others,' 
was the reply of an intelligent native to an Englishman's re- 
mark on this subject, ' but if yon would be understood by my 
countrymen you must address their eyes.'" So says a de- 
scriber of the history and manners of the Persians ; and we 



164 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

suppose that there is some connection between the substitu- 
tion of eyes for ears, just alluded to, and the eyes which 
appear in the extremity of the tail of the peacock. 

When the peacock displays his charms to the admiring 
spectator, it is easy to see in his stiff, formal, stately, and ma- 
jestic aspect, the intention to astonish and overpower, and 
the assumption of a superiority that commands everything to 
bow before it. The perfect parallel of this is in the Persian 
court, as will appear from the following description: "The 
importance of individuals and of kingdoms is measured among 
them by the degree of show which is displayed, and of the 
attention which is exacted by their envoys. If an embassa- 
dor assume great dignity, the nation he represents is believed 
to be wealthy and powerful. If he enforce deference, and 
resent the slightest neglect, his sovereign is considered a 
mighty potentate, and worthy of friendship and respect. 
Hence the diplomatic abilities of a royal representative are 
measured by the obstinacy with which he resists any medi- 
tated encroachments, or contests a point of form at his recep- 
tion, rather than by the firmness with which he conducts a 
difficult negotiation, or the wisdom he exercises in establish- 
ing a treaty. 

" The ceremonies of the court of Persia are, in fact, a sub- 
ject of the most minute study and attention. When the 
shah is seated in public, his sons, ministers, and courtiers, 
stand erect in their appointed places, their hands crossed 
upon their girdles, watching the looks of their sovereign, 
whose glance is a mandate. If he addresses an order or a 
question, a voice is heard in reply, and the lips of the speaker 
move, but not a gesture betrays animation in his frame. 
Should the monarch command him to approach, the awe he 
affects to feel permits him not to advance until the order has 
been several times repeated ; and these behests are always 
enunciated in a deep, sonorous voice, and in the third person 
— the shah saying of himself, 'The king commands' — 'The 
king is pleased,' while his attendants usually address him as 
i Kibleh Allurn? (the object of the world's regard !) and preface 
their reply by the words ' May I be your sacrifice !' 



THE PEACOCK. 105 

"When a foreign embassador arrives, the court assumes 
its most solemn aspect, and its resources are taxed to dazzle 
the stranger as well by magnificence as the exhibition of un- 
controlled power. As he approaches the royal residence a 
deep silence prevails : the men stand like statues ; the horses 
themselves, as if trained to such scenes, scarcely move their 
heads. 

" The envoy is received in a small apartment by one 
of the principal officers of government, who, after a delay 
more or less protracted according to the honor intended to 
be paid, leads him to the hall of audience, where the sover- 
eign, clothed in glittering apparel, sits on a throne covered 
with jewels. A garden, divided into parterres by walks, and 
adorned with flowers and fountains, spreads its beauties be- 
fore the ample windows. Twice is the stranger called upon 
to bow before the king of kings ere he approach the presence, 
to which he is marshalled by two officers of state with gold- 
enamelled wands. His name and country are announced, 
and he is commanded to ascend. Arrived near the throne, 
the deep and solemn voice of the sovereign utters the gracious 
i Koosh Amedeed P after which, retiring to his appointed 
place, he receives permission to be seated." 

Before closing this subject let us look at it in its more 
favorable aspect. The beauty we are speaking of is paradisi- 
acal. It is not for mortals to clothe themselves in the livery 
of heaven, except as the wedding-garment that is indispensa- 
ble to their admission to angelic society. Like the bride, 
they must have made themselves ready before they can enter 
the heavenly mansion ; there must be none suffering for the 
necessaries of life, much less must they obtain heavenly robes 
at the expense of bread and of comfortable garments for the 
poor. Admiration must be gratified in the beauties of the 
sky and earth, in golden sunsets, flowers, insects, birds, all 
things that Nature has provided for all, and every object 
that Art has created for humanity. The peacock and the 
humming-bird are fond of flowers, but the difference between 
them is as the difference between an animal characteristic 
and a human : — 



166 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

14 Self-love and Reason to one end aspire, 
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire ; 
But eager that its object would devour, 
This taste the honey, and not wound the flower.'' 

The peacock devours the object, and is therefore a danger- 
ous ornament in a flower-garden. Not so a human being, 
unless he be totally depraved. The Persians are fond of 
flowers, not merely as ornaments, but as the signs of spiritual 
beauty, and as associated with feelings of humanity and re- 
finement. They have a festival, of which the following is a 
brief description : — 

" The feast of the vernal equinox, the new-year of the an- 
cient Persians, retains its importance in the reformed calen- 
dar, in spite of religious changes. On the birthday of the 
young Spring, when all Nature rejoices (and in no country is 
the transition from the gloom of winter more rapid and de- 
lightful than in Persia), the shah, by ancient custom, proceeds 
from his capital, attended by the ministers and nobles of his 
court, and a large body of troops, to an appointed place, 
where a magnificent tent is prepared, having in it the throne 
of state. The ceremonies commence with a grand review ; 
tribute as well as presents from the governors of provinces, 
from the officers of state, and from all who are entitled to 
stand in the presence, are laid at the feet of his majesty. A 
week is thus spent in feasting and joy." Where else in the 
wide world is " May-day" kept in such a style as this ? There 
is a sacrilegious element in it in the form of royal selfishness, 
but we see in it a bow of promise for the Persians. 



THE HOG. 



167 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 





These two heads, the one of a celestial and the other of a 

terrestrial genius, convey to us the idea of congenial spirits. 

Judging from the expression and contour 

of the face, and from the similarity in 

disposition, heaven 

and earth are no't 

so far apart as ma- 
ny suppose. China 

is favorable to the 

production of just 

such a character 
and physiognomy as we see here. The hog of that country, 
in the estimation of those who know how to distinguish a hog 
from a shark, is the perfection of beauty and excellence. The 
best point in the character of a hog is not a ravenous disposi- 
tion, but simply a taste for anything and everything — an un- 
bounded appetite, perfect digestion, and great tendency to 
grow fat. The hog-fancier is one who perceives the uses of 
the hog, and from these derives his knowledge of what the 
beauty and excellence of this animal consist in. We need 
not go far to find out the origin of our ideas concerning the 
beautiful : it is simply utility. When a person studies the 
points of beauty in a horse, an ox, a hog, a camel, a negro, 
an Irishman, a dancing-master, or any other living being, he 
will see that his ideas of beauty vary with the several uses to 
which they are severally adapted. The highest beauty is the 
highest use. 

Now the comeliness of the Chinese is in remarkable agree- 
ment with that of the hog. Are not those half-closed, drowsy 
eyes, as seen in the portrait on the following page, a striking 



168 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 





element of Chinese beauty ? Can you not easily imagine 
that, exhibited in their perfection as they are in the softer 
sex, you might be smit- 
ten by them ? The story 
of Narcissus becoming 
enamored of his own face 
on seeing it reflected in 
a brook, is not so absurd 
after all, for it is of eyes / j) 
and features like their 
own that the Chinese, or any other race of 
human beings, are most likely to be enamored. The reason 
is, that there is one kind of beauty suited to one, and another 
to another, according to the country to which they adapt 
themselves, and to the uses they are intended to perform. 

Let us do justice to the swine, and we shall see that he has 
points to be admired. If he has a taste adapted to everything,- 
and an appetite that is not easily satisfied, he furnishes the 
most perfect correspondence to the intellectual taste and ap- 
petite of the Chinese, and their ability to digest and appro- 
priate what they read, to become great with superfluity of 
learning, and of intellectual dimensions altogether unwieldy. 
We have heard of " learned pigs," and this term might be 
figuratively applied to the Chinese. The learning for which 
the pig has been distinguished is that of distinguishing one 
character or letter from another, and of picking out the blocks 
on which these are written, so as to spell words, under the 
direction, of course, of his master. This is precisely the kind 
of talent which is most remarkable in the Chinese. The 
eighty thousand characters in their language are nothing 
strange to them, but present an almost insurmountable obsta- 
cle to foreigners w T ho would become acquainted with their 
literature. They regard literary acquirements as the sum to- 
tal of intellectual greatness, and the man of letters is allowed 
a wide berth, not from dislike, but from his supposed capaci- 
ties, and the great respect which is paid him. They desig- 
nate the implements of writing (the brush, ink, paper, and 
marble) by a word which signifies the " four precious things." 



THE HOG. 169 

But it would seem that this extraordinary literary appetite 
in the Chinese has its foundation in something more substan- 
tial. The celestials are the greatest epicures in the world, 
and, like the terrestrials, are rather indiscriminate in their 
choice of food — accepting as dainties rats, mice, cats, dogs, 
hogs, and a variety of unclean animals. Those great curiosi- 
ties, the chopsticks, enable them to eat as hogs do ; that is, 
by throwing the food into the mouth, a manner of eating that 
is to be observed in no other animal than the hog. If the 
hog had not the privilege of " pitching in" his food, he would 
not be a hog ; neither would a Chinaman be a Chinaman if 
he did not use his chopsticks in eating. On this subject we 
quote the following from the French traveller La Place : — 

" It seemed very doubtful whether I should be able to eat 
my rice grain by grain, according to the belief of Europeans 
regarding the Chinese custom. I therefore waited until my 
host should begin, to follow his example, foreseeing that, on 
this new occasion, some fresh discovery would serve to relieve 
us from the truly ridiculous embarrassment which we all dis- 
played : in a word, our two Chinese, cleverly joining the ends 
of their chopsticks, plunged them into the bowls of rice, held 
up to the mouth, which was opened to its full extent, and 
thus easily shovelled in the rice, not by grains, but by hand- 
fuls." 

Not merely as to the manner of eating, but as to the arti- 
cles of food and the forms in which they are administered, do 
the Chinese resemble hogs. In illustration of this, we quote 
the following description from the same writer : "The first 
course was laid out in a great number of saucers of painted 
porcelain, and consisted of various relishes in a cold state, as 
salted earthworms, prepared and dried, but so cut up that 
I fortunately did not know what they were until I had swal- 
lowed them ; salted or smoked fish, and ham, both of them 
cut into extremely small slices ; besides which there was what 
they called Japan leather, a sort of darkish skin, hard and 
tough, with a strong and far from agreeable taste, which 
seemed to have been macerated for some time in water. All 
these et ceteras, including among the number a liquor which 



170 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

I recognised to be soy — made from a Japan bean, and long 
since adopted by the wine-drinkers of Europe to revive their 
faded appetites or tastes — were used as seasoning to a great 
number of stews which were contained in bowls, and suc- 
ceeded each other uninterruptedly. All the dishes, without 
exception, swam in soup. On one side figured pigeons' eggs, 
cooked in gravy, together with ducks and fowls cut very 
small, and immersed in dark-colored sauce ; on the other, 
little balls made of sharks' fins, eggs prepared by heat, of 
which both the smell and taste seemed to us equally repul- 
sive, immense grubs, a peculiar kind of sea-fish, crabs, and 
pounded shrimps. I had great difficulty in seizing my prey 
in the midst of these several bowls filled with gravy ; in vain 
I tried to hold, in imitation of my host, this substitute for a 
fork between the thumb and the first two fingers of the right 
hand; for the cursed chopsticks slipped aside every moment, 
leaving behind them the unhappy little morsel which I cov- 
eted. It is true that the master of the house came to the 
relief of my inexperience (by which he was much entertained) 
with his two instruments, the extremities of which, a few mo- 
ments before, had touched a mouth whence age and the use 
of snuff and tobacco had cruelly chased its good looks. I 
could very well have dispensed with such an auxiliary, for 
my stomach had already much ado to support the various 
ragouts, each one more surprising than another, which I had 
been obliged, nolens volens, to taste of." 

We can not finish the description of the sumptuous habits 
of the Chinese, but enough has been said to show their re- 
semblance in this respect to the hog. They may be also 
regarded as "hoggish" in that peculiarity of theirs, the dis- 
position to have everything to themselves. This exclnsive- 
ness is assisted by large secretiveness\ which is indicated in 
the expansion of the wing of the nostril, which sign is large 
ia the hog, together with the sign of inquisitiveness, or the 
upward tendency of the end of the snout, constituting that 
peculiar form of nose called the " celestial." In the hog this 
particular form of the nasal protuberance is useful as well as 
ornamental. It answers the purpose of a prying curiosity, a 



THE HOG. 



171 




trait for which the Chinese are as remarkable as for their 
secretiveness. No doubt the Chinaman, judging from him- 
self, attributes inquisitiveness to others, and this keeps his 
secretiveness in a constant state of excitement ; and it is with 
great reluctance that he opens the gates of the celestial em- 
pire to earth-born foreigners. 

The two faculties just spoken of give the hog and the Chi- 
nese a mining and delving disposition the very opposite of 
that which is implied in the appellation of the latter. They 
are for ever busy in obtaining the necessaries of life, except 
when supplied by others, and then they show extraordinary 
faculties of rest and sleep, as well as laziness. Earth is their 
mother, and they claim the indulgence of her lap and hex 
fruitful rows of corn more than others of her children. They 
are wonderfully crowd- 
ed together, and roll 
and tumble over each 
other in the struggle 
for a subsistence ; for 
though their mother is 
planted on every hill- 
side and valley, there 
are not rows enough for 
them all. The Chinaman has indeed many of the character- 
istics of the infant, and the infant is a " little pig." It would 




172 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

be easy to illustrate this, but we pass on to the signs of the 
Chinese and the hog loving the earth so well. One is, that 
they are both dirty. Says a work on China : " The great sin 
of the Chinese costume is the paucity of white linen, and con 
eequently of washing. Even their body-garment is sometimes 
a species of light silk, but capable of putrefaction. All the 
rest of their dress being of silks or furs, there is less demand 
for white calico or linen, in proportion to the numbers, than 
in any other country. They spread neither sheets upon their 
beds nor cloths on their tables, and the want of personal 
cleanliness has, of course, a tendency to promote cutaneous 
and leprous complaints." It should be observed, however, 
that scorbutic affections are natural to the hog, and it may 
be that in this respect the Chinese resemble him, though we 
can hardly suppose that his rolling himself in the dirt would 
tend to prevent it, as in the inferior animal. 

The Chinese compare very well with the hog in respect to 
cruelty, tearing and rending, or whatever grows out of de- 
structiveness and revenge, and the eating of garbage. The 
government of China is a wild boar : u The mandarin is pre- 
ceded by a hundred executioners, who, with a sort of yell, 
announce his approach. Should any one forget to retire to 
the wall, he is severely whipped. On entering a city he can 
urder any person, whom he chooses to have arrested, to be 
put to death, and no one can venture to defend him." As to 
the emperor, " when he goes abroad, all the people are obliged 
to shut themselves up in their houses. Whoever is found in 
his way is exposed to instant death, unless he turns his back, 
or lies flat with his face on the ground. All the shops by 
which he passes must be shut, and he never goes out without 
being preceded by two thousand officers, carrying chains, 
axes, and various other instruments of cruelty." 

"Parents have the right to destroy or mutilate their chil- 
dren, thousands of whom are yearly exposed to perish in the 
rivers." They plead, in excuse for this, that they have not 
food for so many mouths, and the necessity of a living for 
themselves ; and doubtless the sow, when she devours two or 
three of her numerous litter, may claim the benefit of tho 



THE HOG. 



1T3 



same apology. The Chinese " have one species of refinement 
on the 6core of skins. The young lamb in utero, after a cer- 
tain period of gestation, is taken out, and its skin prepared, 
with its fine, silky wool upon it, for dresses, which of course 
require, on account of the small size of the skins, a great 
number of lambs to be thus 'untimely ripped.'" Who but 
people resembling the hog too literally would ever think of 
such a thing? 

The Chinese and the hog are remarkable for subterfuge. 
They are excellent scavengers, as before illustrated. If one 
kind of food will not answer, another will : birds' nests, silk- 
worm chrysalides, the tender shoots of the bamboo, things 
that nobody else would think of, are converted by the Chi- 
nese into food. They are willing, like beggars, to accept of 
anything. They are fond of disguises, and this fondness in 
the hog is gratified, together with his secretiveness, subter- 
fuge, and inquisitiveness, when he rolls himself in a slough, 
and renders himself undistinguishable, or passes for a part 
of the plastic clay from which he was formed. The Chinese 
mustache has a filthy look, like something running out at the 
corner of the mouth, where the tusk of the hog makes its ap- 
pearance, and is indicative of the same savage disposition. 
The Chinese and the hog are both characterized by very 
small feet; but whether the hog would render this peculiar- 
ity still more conspicuous, if he had reason, by compressing 
his feet, we can not say. He has certainly no disposition to 





contract his waist, and the 

Chinese discard all ligatures 

and confinements of every kind from the neighborhood of the 

stomach and bowels ; and therein, certainly, the Chinese 

ladies have the advantage of our own. 



174 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY- 

The liog loves a plastic bed, adapts it to his own mo: Id, 
daubs the black pigment wherever his nose can carry it, 
paints in a very workmanlike manner the inside of his trough 
up to the very edge, an operation to which the softness and 
pliability of his snout are admirably adapted. In this re- 
spect he is not unworthy of being compared with the Chinese, 
whose fondness for working in clay, for moulding, glazing, 
painting, and leaving a stain, is well known. Both the hog 
and the Chinese exercise the faculty of moulding along with 
the faculty of protection, which makes them fond of trenches 
and strong walls, within which to ensconce themselves, and 
in this they show that degree of prudence which may with 
the greatest propriety be called "sconce." The hog treads 
the mortar, mixes the straw, digs the trench, from which he 
heaves up the wall ; and the order which he observes, and 
the straightness of the line, show that he has an eye to a for 
tification — that he is capable, like an engineer, of laying out 
his plan, and of intimating what he wishes to have done. He 
is warned of the approach of a storm, and begins to look out 
for a squall, carrying straw in his mouth as his share of the 
materials for a primitive fortification, to make good his pro- 
tection from the elements. Walking aboukwith that peculiar 
air of self-importance that is ascribed to the hog, and which 
belongs to those who maintain a supreme right to the soil, he 
would yet prefer his sty or a mud-hovel to a palace, as a place 
to live in. In this they resemble the Chinese, who " endeavor 
to make a pompous appearance when they go abroad ; and 
yet their houses are mean and low, consisting only of a ground 
floor." China abounds in canals and ditches, and the hog 
engages in such works of art as these, and loves to plough in 
the bottom of pools and stagnant waters for the means of sub- 
s'stence, in imitation of which the Chinese "cultivate the 
bottom of their waters, the beds of their lakes, ponds, and 
rivulets," and obtain from the mud such a variety of animal 
and vegetable food as entitle them to be ranked with hogs 
in the class omnivora. 

As the hog and the Chinese agree so well in taste and ap- 
petite, and in the form, quality, and quantity of their food, 



THE HOG. 175 

it is to be expected that they would agree in corporosity. 
The added dimensions that come from a deposition of fat in 
the Chinese empire, might be illustrated by very numerous 
examples. "Those are thought to be most handsome who 
are most bulky," and it is worthy of observation and reflec- 
tion that their gods, which embody their ideas of beauty and 
perfection, or of what is worthy of being admired, worshipped, 
and aimed at, have enormous stomachs, little feet, large ears, 
and small eyes, like the hog, and like themselves, only very 
much exaggerated. The hollow cheeks and meager aspect 
of many of the Chinese have hardly their parallel in the worst- 
conditioned and most perverted of hogs ; but who does not 
know, if he will reflect upon it, that the Chinaman, like any 
other tea-drinker, tobacco-snuffer, opium-smoker, and what 
not, must be lean and shadowy — so much so, that you might 
almost rattle his bones? It is by virtue of his tea, which he 
keeps constantly over the fire and makes almost constant use 
of; and by virtue of his snuff, which he carries in a bottle 
that is seldom absent from his side, and ladles out with a 
spoon, to be snuffed up the nose; and by virtue of his opium, 
which, lying upon a couch, he spends hours in smoking — it 
is by virtue of these that he gives countenance to the idea 
with which he wishes to impress himself and others, viz., that 
he is celestial. It is remarkable that this claim is put forth 
by fat people, and by those who are epicurean in their dispo- 
sition, rather more frequently than by others ; but — 

" Were I as fat as stalled theology, 
Wishing would waste me to his shade again" — 

and wishing to become celestial may have led the Chinese to 
the discovery of the use of tea; and in this they are more 
fortunate than certain of their emperors, who, in attempting 
to make themselves immortal, proved that the elixir vito3 was 
a misnomer. As to their opium-smoking, it is said that " a 
few days of this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, will 
give a pale and haggard look to the face ; and a few months, 
or even weeks, will change the strong and healthy man into 
little better than an idiof: skeleton." 



170 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

Were we to mention all the points of congeniality between 
the Chinaman and the hog, it would swell this chapter to the 
dimensions they so much admire. We will notice in con- 
clusion only this — a wonderful adaptation in respect to prow- 
ess, and disposition to the cultivation of the soil. Pope never 
made a greater mistake than when he said — 

" The hog that ploughs not," 

for Nature has furnished this animal with a plough, and given 
him the ability and the disposition to use it. But we will be- 
stow our compliments upon the Chinese rather than the hog. 
The annual festival in honor of agriculture speaks more for 
the honor of the Chinese than anything we have said of them 
yet. We quote the following: — 

" Throughout the Chinese empire, agricultural improve- 
ment has in all ages been encouraged and honored. Rank- 
ing next to men of letters and officers of state, the cultivator 
of the soil is considered an honorable and useful member of 
society. It may be remarked here that, among the several 
grades of society, the cultivators of mind rank first; those of 
land are placed next; and the third station is assigned to 
manufacturers ; while the exchangers of commodities or mer- 
chants rank lowest of all. A deep veneration for agriculture 
is inscribed on all the institutions in China. A homage to 
this primary art is still seen in the annual celebration by 
which the emperor makes a show of performing its operations. 
This anniversary takes places on the twenty-fourth day of the 
second moon, corresponding with our month of February. 
The monarch prepares himself for it by fasting three days ; 
he then repairs to the appointed spot with three princes, nine 
presidents of the high tribunals, forty old and forty youn^ 
husbandmen. Having offered a sacrifice of the fruits of the 
earth to the Supreme Deity, he takes in his hand the plough, 
and makes a furrow of some length, in which he is followed 
by the prinoes and other grandees. A similar course is ob- 
served in sowing the field ; and the operations are completed 
by the husbandmen. 

"An annual festival is also celebrated in the capital of 



THE HOG- 177 

each province. The governor marches forth crowned with 
flowers, and accompanied by a numerous train bearing flags, 
adorned with agricultural emblems and portraits of eminent 
husbandmen ; while the streets are decorated with lanterns 
and triumphal arches. Among other figures is a porcelain 
cow of enormous magnitude, carried by forty men, and at- 
tended by a boy who represents the genius of industry. At 
the close of the procession the image is opened, and found to 
contain numerous smaller cows of the same material, which 
are distributed among the people." 



12 



178 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

It is generally felt and acknowledged that the love for ani- 
mals is closely allied to the love for children. When a man 
is convicted of a fondness for "pets," it is supposed that pet- 
ting is one of the phases of his parental affection, and that he 
would pet his children in the dame manner that he would his 
animals. It is taken for granted that an old lady who keeps 
parrots, or cats, or a lapdog, and shows them great attention, 
is simply exercising her faculty of " philoprogenitiveness," as 
the phrenologists would say, and that the degree of her fond- 
ness shows the degree of attachment she would have had for 
children if fortune had directed her affection in that channel. 

It was before hinted that children are more nearly allied 
to animals than grown people; that Nature is the first parent 
of all, and that man has a foster-parent, by the name of Art, 
that instructs, refines, and purifies him, and thus distinguishes 
him from animals. This is reason enough why the love for 
children and the love for animals should be included in one. 

But there is also in the mind of man a discrimination with 
regard to the several objects of parental affection. In child- 
hood the resemblance to some particular animal is strongest, 
and wears off gradually, as the process of education advances ; 
and as the fondness for pets implies that some animals are 
special favorites, and that others are not, of course there are 
a great number of hinds of children, and one person loves 
one kind and another another. Most persons, when asked if 
they are fond of children, can not honestly say "yes" without 
a qualification. They do not know exactly how to express 
their difficulty, not being aware of what the distinctions con- 
sist in; and hence one person says he is fond of children 
when they get large enough to play ; another says he is fond 



THE HOG. 



179 



of infants ; another says he is fond of children that have the 
air of a noble mother about them ; another says that he is 
fond of them when Nature has given them features and ex- 
pressions according to his own notions. It is on this princi- 
ple that people are particularly fond of their own children, or 
that " every crow thinks her own young the whitest." Pa- 
rental love seems often not to be developed until persons 
become parents ; but the individual who is fond of all sorts 
of animals is fond of all sorts of children. This is true of 
those who have a sympathy for Nature in general. 

As but few infants and young children resemble parrots, 
those who show a special fondness for these birds do so to 
the exclusion of an affection for children ; they lavish all 
their love upon their pets, expend sums of money upon them, 
and if possible would cause them to inherit their fortunes. 
But those who see a great deal of beauty in little pigs, as 
thousands do, as is evident from their gazing upon them with 
admiration whenever they have an opportunity, and from 
their express declarations, find a multitude of children that 
they are fond of. When they look into the little pig eyes of 
a child, their own eyes twinkle 
with delight and with a reflection 
from those ; and when they look 
at its little porky cheeks, and at 
its little snouty face between, they 
wish to press those cheeks with 
their own, and to " measure noses*' 
with that little turn-up nose, and 
to measure mouths with that little 
turn-up mouth, and it is ten to one 
if they do not gratify their desire. 

But the parental love of others refuses to descend to this 
seeming grossness: they could not caress a child like that 
represented above. Some little thing that resembled a puppy 
or a kitten would please them more, for they resemble dogs 
or cats, and from self-love they beget children in their own 
likeness, and from this principle they love them. They con- 
ceive children in their brains ; these are their beau-ideals, 




ISO 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



and all others are the objects of invidious comparison and 
contrast. 

There is in reality not much parental affection in the pa- 
rents of children who are of the kind just represented. They 
are too selfish to extend their affection to anything that bears 
a likeness to themselves, for the more others are like them- 
selves the more they regard them as rivals. They love only 
that which they receive, or have before received, or have the 
hope of receiving ; and when they perceive that they have 
children (which was a thing they did not wish), they look 
upon it as a misfortune, and as something they must submit 
to because it can not be helped. The cultivation of family 
pride will go far toward making them content with their sit- 
uation. Whatever is important in their estimation must come 
from themselves, must be derived from their own portliness, 
and must still be considered as a part of it, and there are no 
children in the world of the least consequence but their own. 
Their pride is enormously increased by an addition to their 

bulk, and they walk with 
an air of greater impor- 
tance than before, and as 
if they were at particular 
pains to show themselves 
— The consideration that 
what they receive inter- 
nally will add to their 
portliness adds also very 
greatly to their estimate 
of the high value and im- 
portance of eating. They 
are sensual in reference 
to everything which they 




receive, but 



m 



reference to everything 
which they are doomed 
to part with ; and if they 

give away anything, it is included in the debt which they 

pay to Nature, or is something useless. 



THE HOG. 



181 




The hog is an aristocratic individual, as is seen in the 
description of the person who bears a resemblance to him, 
and in various other hoggish dispositions that have not been 
mentioned. It is easy to 
see that the " Hermit of 
Belly-full" is hospitable 
to himself, and has no 
kindness to waste on chil- 
dren or on anybody else. 
He is partial to his own 
society, and dreads the 

approach of a guest, for he has nothing to spare — he has no 
more than he wants himself. He looks as if he were saying, 
" What have you come here for?" — as if he would say this 
to his first-begotten ; and as if to the second he would say, 
"I've more mouths than I can feed already;" and as if to a 
beggar he would say, "I've nothing for you: get you gone, 
you clog you !" It may be that after dinner he will be good- 
natured, for the hog is good-natured when he is full, but this 
does not make him benevolent. Eating is his principal em- 
ployment, and he spends a share of his time in measuring his 
dimensions by the quantity of air or water he is capable of 
displacing, for he blows like a porpoise, and rolls himself 
around, and views himself askance, and regards complacently 
the reflection which he sees in his broad mirror, which he 
keeps always in the dining-room and opposite his place at the 
table. The hog exhibits the same trait of character in his 
disposition to wallow out into a green pool, the surface of 
which shines like a metallic mirror, and there, with half- 
opened eyes, which show that he is not sleeping, to consider 
and enjoy himself. The man who resembles him does not 
stand before his mirror, but sits down, and congratulates 
himself on the results of his hearty appetite and his good 
digestion. 

The hog receives attentions like a lord : they sit well upon 
him; and that high life is his natural element is evident from 
the fact that his eye has the expression of happiness and good 
cheer, when his wants are supplied without any trouble of his 



182 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



own. You may see, from the knowing expression of his eye, 
that he is " a pig in clover," for the knowledge of this fact 
gives his eye a wonderful deal of intelligence: he seems to 

see that his numerous re- 
tainers are bent upon ma- 
king him iiappy, and his 
eye dances when he sees 
them dancing attendance 
upon him. 

But who does not see 
that there is still more 





meaning in that eye, if he can only get at it? To be well fed 
gives a man the appearance of benevolence. He can not 
find it in his heart to wish evil to those who wish him good ; 
nay, he wishes them well for his own sake. This it is that is 
likely to be mistaken for benevolence in the eye of one who 
resembles the lucky hog we are speaking of. This happiness 
and good-nature, along with a determination to have what is 
wanted, expressed in the other parts of the countenance, fa- 
vors roguishness, which is seen in those eyes more plainly, 
we might almost say, than the eye itself. You might fancy 
Francis Joseph, the emperor of Austria, with such eyes as 
those, taking the child first presented by the toes, one by one, 
and saying: "This pig says, 'I go get corn ;' this pig says, 
'I go too;' this pig says, 'I'll tell master;' this pig says, 'I 
don't care if you do;' this pig says, 'Queek! queek! can't 
get open gran'fer's barn-door!'" And the pig we see above 
answers to all these characters perfectly, with the addition 
that when he comes to the last he looks around for somebody 
to help him, expressing his desire to be admitted, and point- 



THE HOG. 183 

mg with Ins nose to the place that he wishes to go to. He 
wants unlimited range, and has been so long pampered and 
indulged, that he has no thought of denying himself anything. 
"We may say, speaking allegorically, that he is looking with 
his nose toward Hungary, which he associates in his mind 
with the hunger of that part of his countenance ; and with 
his eyes toward Russia, asking assistance from that quartei 
for the gratification of his imperious desires. If there is any 
meaning to the word " piggish," as applied to human beingSj 
surely it is applicable to the pig. 

The animal we are speaking of has the appearance of being 
well dressed, which naturally accompanies good living : this 
takes place in anticipation of the dressing that will be given 
him preparatory to his receiving the title of " Pork." Nature 
demands this for her protege, otherwise he would not be so 
smooth and sleek; and the doctors who do their share in the 
labor of " giving him a dressing," take shelter under the favor- 
ite motto that it is their business to help Nature in the accom- 
plishment of her good intentions. It is vain for a pig to ask 
favor of a turkey, alias the Turk, for — 

41 Good mussulmen abstain from pork ;" 

but it is the most natural thing in the world for a pig to look 
to a goose for assistance, for the two are fitted to be compan- 
ions ; they have tastes in the same direction ; they are in ev- 
ery way congenial, and can sympathize with each other heart- 
ily. Look at those eyes again : do they not look doatingly 
upon the fair, round form of the goose, alias the Russian \ 
do they not say, "If you'll scratch my back, I'll scratch 
yours"? Are they not courting her for a helpmate, and tel- 
ling her that she will make a good one? Ah ! who has not 
felt what a world of expression there is in the eye of a pig? 
what winning confidence! what unity in all the infinite va- 
riety and phrases of feeling ! all being included in one con- 
suming, absorbing emotion, self-love ! 

Too great a degree of this affection eats a man up. It 
makes a beggar of him ; it takes the starch out of his ears, 
robs him of his cleanliness, together with his dressy appear- 



18*1 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



anee, and clothes him with rags and tatters. The more 
clothing he has on the more poor and miserable he looks ; 
and as it is the same with the hog, the dressing of this animal 
consists in scraping away the clothing he has on, as a gar- 
dener scrapes away dirt. For the illustration of these obser- 
vations, compare the preceding hog with the one following. 
" What a fall is that, my couutrymen !" — and this in conse- 
quence of supreme selfishness, when the means for gratifying 
it, and for being made happy and good-natured, are taken 
away ! He calls for help still ; he is dependent on others. 
It is so with the person who resembles him. As the means 
of subsistence are gone from his head, he holds out his hat 




to receive them at second hand ; and he holds a staff in his 
hand to pick his way with, showing what dry picking the 
gutters afford him, and to signify how little supper he has to 
lean upon. His staff is an emblem of the "staff of life," 
which is the special object of his pursuit, and it impresses 
the mind with the idea that he is a pilgrim and a stranger. 



THE HOG. 



185 



and is looking for something that he can't find. A well-dis- 
posed, benevolent individual would suppose that it was a 
u city out of sight," but it is merely what the coming hog is 
looking for and can't see till he has hit it with his nose, when 
instantly he seizes upon it with all the interest of a new dis- 
covery. 

It may not be amiss to inquire why a person who is su- 
premely selfish should be in so destitute and miserable a 
condition. It is simply this: his desire for everything, his 
greediness to eat all the world up, deprives him of taste and 
discrimination. This accounts for the want of taste in the 
hog: he would rob the very plants of their nourishment — 




filch from the soil the decaying vegetables and the offal that 
had been placed there for the production of verdure. He 
seizes first upon that which is thrown away, as being that 
which is most likely to be lost if he does not get it; by this 
means he expects to acquire the world, for he knows that the 
soil is the origin of capital, as many a politician will tell you, 
and that the pennies make the pounds. The miser and the 
beggar are of this description : the two are often united in 
one. It is not in the sign of economy that their beggarly dis- 
position is indicated, but in their resemblance to swine. The 
hog-formation is very commonly met with in the politician 



186 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

also. The beggar, with his hat in his band, is electioneering 
for votes, and may not be aware that there is a hole in the 
bottom of his hat (we do not say top, for, like himself, his hat 
is inverted), for the votes to fall out of. His subserviency, 
submission, independence, and firmness, which belong to the 
top of his head, are turned downward, and that portion of his 
head leaks. 

What an ashy hue, covering a fire of life that can scarcely 
glimmer through it, is seen in the eye of that hog ! You can 
judge from the rest of the countenance that the eye of that 
beggar is the same. They are such eyes as glare upon you 
in nightmare, and are expressed by the term spectral. They 
indicate that there is appetite without taste; that the spectre 
is of the kind whose god is their belly, and who haunt those 
who pay reverence to the same deity. Soft, rich, luxuriant 
eyes indicate a great deal of taste, and less appetite : they 
are full of life and beauty, and in every respect the very 
reverse of those of the two beggars before represented. 

The pig is never negligent of appearances, as we see in the 
last example, as well as in the preceding; and there is one 
thing that he has a particular regard for, and that is, the looks 
of his tail. In the chapter concerning the rhinoceros it was 
seen how Appetite, which resides in the head, gains the mas- 
tery of Insensibility, which resides in the tail ; and it was 
seen that in the hog the former takes pride in showing that 
the latter is its servant, while in the rhinoceros the two are on 
terms of friendship with each other. The hog has the same 
sort of pride in his tail that the aristocrat has in his footman 
who rides modestly and proudly at the tail end of his coach ; 
and the pride comes from the same source and in the same 
manner in the latter instance as in the former. The hog looks 
askance at his tail, and twists and flourishes it about, before 
he touches the morsel that is under his nose, as if he would 
ask permission to eat it (the tail being the older), and would 
at the same time twit the tail of his ability and determination 
to do as he pleased, and would also congratulate that member 
on its share of the bounty, and on having so lordly a master. 
The head, be it observed, is synonymous with appetite, and 



THE HOG. 187 

the tail with insensibility, as was explained in the chapter re- 
ferred to. 

However much an aristocratic pig may acquire smoothness 
by the shortening of his hair, and by giving erectness to his 
ears instead of to his bristles, he never loses the least scrap 
of his tail, unless by the hand of violence. In fact, the more 
he has the appearance of being dressed for the market, the 
more he figures with his tail, running through all the Arabic 
characters, from 1 to 9. Such a close calculator is he, that 
he never misses his figure, and it would never do for him to 
part with the member with which he does his reckoning, inas- 
much as he reckons upon it so highly : as well might a noble 
lady part with her footman as he part with the evidence of 
his nobility ; there is no keeping up appearances without it! 

In the Chinese, who were proved in the last chapter to re- 
semble hogs, this trait of character is exhibited to perfection. 
No Chinaman, who lays any claim to respectability, would 
part with his " pig-tail." It is natural to him, and he im- 
proves it by cultivation. His dressing his head in the man- 
ner of dressing a pig is a sign of consequence, and a conse- 
quence of high living or of high life ; and in the degree that 
he does this he improves his pig-tail ; he reckons upon it, he 
sets store by it, and would not part with it for love, though 
he might possibly for money. Love with the Chinese is not 
very strong, but it is made fleshly by the exceeding grossness 
which they share in common with the swine. This is proved 
by the disgusting fact that in Canton and its suburbs there 
are sixteen hundred brothels, each of which pays, for a monthly 
license to the police, two hundred dollars! Thus love and 
money are proved to be synonymous with those who resem- 
ble swine — a rule as applicable to one country as to another. 
The hog-fonnation is common to the authorities ; and it is 
sometimes said figuratively of the hog that his proportion? 
are aldermanic, but this does not prove that there are not 
moral qualities in the alderman to render the animal nature 
entirely subservient. 

Speaking of the Chinese in respect to love, they are jealous 
of their wives, and pen them up as they do pigs, thus ac- 



188 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

knowledging that there is a relationship between them. Saya 
S[r. Davis : " It is the fate of the emperor's wives and women 

o reside for ever within the walls of the palace ; and, after 
>is death, they are confined for life in a prison called the 

Palace of Chastity.' " As much as they wish to enlarge 
themselves, and to have "room and verge enough," they wisli 
to cramp and confine their women, and show that above all 
others on the face of the earth they deserve the title of " lords 
ot* creation." Hence a woman is esteemed beautiful in thqir 
eyes in proportion as she is little, and a man is esteemed 
beautiful in proportion as he is fat and large. Hence, too, 
they cramp the feet of their women, which are the organs 
most likely to run abroad, and make them a great deal littler 
than Nature made them. As soon as a female is born, if she 
be of the higher class, her toes are doubled down under her 
feet, and tightly bandaged, so that at the period of maturity 
the entire fore part of the foot looks as if it had been ampu- 
tated, while the sides and ankle are swelled to an enormous 
extent; and these feet, manufactured according to their sci- 
ence of pedology as applied to women, they call the "golden 
lilies," in allusion doubtless to the modesty of which the lily 
is the emblem, and which this lesson is intended to inculcate. 
If this is not hoggish, what other of the traits that we have 
enumerated may be called so? 

As we progress with our subject we must iefer occasionally 
to our text, "Man is an animal." That all men are not 
the same hind of animals is a clear deduction from the facts 
that have been presented, and it is fortunate that they are 
not. If the Chinaman resembles the hog, he must have a 
particular admiration and fondness for that animal: he must 
rest back upon it when he acknowledges his dependence up- 
on Nature, and feels his relationship to his mother earth ; 
and inasmuch as the hog is not a fit animal to be rode upon, 
he must rear himself upon its flesh. What the ox is to the 
English, the hog is to the Chinese. This appears from the 
fact that twenty-four thousand pigs are slaughtered daily in the 
city of Canton. According to our notions, a pig would be a 
strange animal to offer in sacrifice to a hero or to the gods ; 



THE HOG. 189 

but in the fifteen hundred temples dedicated to Confucius 
there are, among the animals sacrificed annually, twenty- 
seven thousand pigs ! So high an honor as to be offered in 
sacrifice in company with sheep and lambs, or even alone, 
was never conferred upon the hog in any other country than 
China. So absurd a thought never entered the head of any- 
body less ridiculous than the Chinaman — but "no dispute 
about taste." 

It has been already observed that the Chinaman has a taste 
of his own. It behooves him to make use of whatever exter- 
nal attractions are in accordance with it, and to make the 
most of these while young, for when he gets old he is exces- 
sively ugly, and his wife is no better looking than he. "Pretty 
little pigs — ugly old sow !" is especially applicable to China ; 
but the pig-tail is so supremely beautiful, that the loss of mi- 
nor beauties of complexion, freshness, and expression, are not 
missed. There is, however, a significance in the shaving 
of the head. It indicates that the individual is formed to re- 
ceive impressions on the brain, and that the mind is cleared 
from brushwood, and prepared to receive seed into a virgin 
soil ; or that it is like a sheet of fair paper, to be written upon ; 
that it is, in short, an infant mind, plastic, faithful to the im- 
pression that is made upon it, suited to the study of letters 
and words, learning its lessons by rote, and following copy, 
or imitating, to perfection. Hence the Chinese should be 
scholars, and they who resemble them should be men of let- 
ters, and the hog himself should be literary. We should see 
the former surrounded with books and papers in orderly con- 
fusion, in the midst of his wealth and in the centre of his 
empire, having an eye to the whole, and ready to dispose of 
each particular object in its proper order, and according to 
the rule — 

" Discord is harmony not understood, 
All partial evil universal good" — 

and the hog we should see surrounded with straw, in a cell 
that is thoroughly littered, where he can feel perfectly at 
home, and improve and grow fat, and enjoy himself, instead 
of living in dampness and wallowing in the mire. 



X90 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



It is a fact well worthy of observation that the men of most 
extensive learning have a resemblance to the hog. We could 
give numerous examples of this, but one will be sufficient — 




that of Erasmus, who is seen to have the air and manner of 
the wild-boar. Appetite for intellectual food, which shall 

cause the mind, by growing, 
to become enlarged, corre- 
sponds to appetite for the 
food of the body ; and as 
the hog has an appetite and 
relish for everything, and 
can digest everything that 
he has the least inclination 
to swallow, and never be- 
comes disgusted or sick at 
anything that can be appro- 
priated to the formation of 




THE HOG-. ^1 

n animal, so it is in respect to the individual who resembles 
hog, and to the food that is capable of being appropriated 
X) the formation of a human mind. The portrait on the pre- 
ceding page is of Erasmus reading; and the boar looks as if 
he were in a brown study — as if he were consuming the 
midnight oil, or lard, or fatness, which is very likely to be 
wasted away by too great attention to books. Looking at 
the eye of that animal, you can hardly help imagining that 
he is reading by candle-light, and that supreme silence reigns 
around him — that he is reading the great book of Nature 
while she is asleep. He resembles the bear very strongly, 
and there is an important relation between the hog and the 
bear, as will be seen by-and-by. 



J&2 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 



It is not so easy to idealize the bear into an eagle as to 
change the bull into a lion ; but the polar bear (see page 203) 
is sufficiently powerful of himself, and would have the advan- 
tage over the lion of being a truthful emblem of a great and 
powerful nation. When the lion shall eat straw like an ox. 
the polar bear may be our national ensign. The United States 
should stand confessed the " Ursus Major," the object of uni- 
versal interest, the " polar star" of Freedom throughout the 
world. 

With the exception of man, the polar bear is the brightest 
example of conjugal attachment which the world affords, and 
parental love is here more beautifully and wonderfully exem- 
plified than in the eagle. What nobler emblem, therefore, 
of the character of his government, or what more appropriate 
badge of his nationality, could "Brother Jonathan" require? 
Next to this, or perhaps we should say before it, we would 
choose the Indian, with his bow and arrows. 

There is a relation of harmony 
between the hog and the bear, 
and this implies opposition as 
well as similarity, and this oppo- 
sition must be maintained. The 
king of Naples resembles that 
kind of horse that has most re- 
semblance to the bull ; and here 
we have a specimen of a Yankee 
who resembles most that kind of 
bear which bears the strongest 
resemblance to the hog. Tlv 
Syrian bear (which this is) approximates very closely to tl 




THE BEAK- 1 f>3 

wild-boar, and is as ugly in disposition as lie is in looks. 
You recognise m him the child-hating savage that Indian 




mothers hold up as objects of terror to their little ones. Yan- 
kee mothers do so too ; and if you should look in their faces 
you would see that mixture of cunning and cruelty, that un- 
feeling mockery, that thoughtless insensibility, which you see 
here. 

The polar bear is the very contrary of all this. He has 
both the ability and the will to maintain his rights, and there- 
in he is worthy to be honored. As male and female, in their 
mutual fondness for their offspring, which is based on their 
mutual affection for each other, they present the most perfect 
emblem of a true government that the world affords. They 
are governed by their young, for parental love rules them, 
and it is this which influences their cubs : and so a republic 
is governed by the weak and dependent more than by the 
great and strong. The " Russian bear" (by which we mean 
the Russian government) is the very reverse of republican, for ft 
resembles a hog, and a hog resembles a goose. Russia takes 
its cue from China, and in connection with the fact that the 
Chinese wear queues, or pig-tails, it should be observed that 
the emperor Paul adopted the pig-tail, and introduced it into 
the army. His courage and military display were peculiarly 
Chinese, except that they partook more of the nature of the 
goose than of the hog. 

There are three personages of whom the distich is true — 

13 



94 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



44 Great is thy power, and great thy fame. 
Far kenned and noted is thy name" — 

two of them called "Nicholas," and the other the bear that 
is now pretty well understood to be a bug-bear. Whether the 
son of Paul, who represents the Enssian bear at present, in- 
herits the formidable qualities of his father, is not yet fully 
decided. The bug-bear rushes suddenly from under cover, 
and cries, "Boo!" which is a very common practice with the 
hog. 

We must, however, keep to our text, which is the resem- 
blance between the bear and the Yankee. This resemblance, 
as before observed, is particularly strong. As truth perverted 
is worse falsehood than any other, and as hypocrisy is more 
infernal than any other kind of wickedness, so that kind of 
bear that is perverted into a near resemblance to the hog re- 
sembles the meanest sort of a Yankee, than whom there can 

be no greater impostor on 
the face of the earth. Than 
such a one there can also 
be no more unprincipled 
tyrant, or, in other words, 
inconsistent republican, to 
be found. A sneaking, un- 
der-ground miner, descend- 
ing lower than the hog — 
delving for sordid gain — 
pandering to the strongest 
— is such a resemblance to 
a bears, that disgrace the 
name of their species, to 
be found on the western continent? 

As the resemblance to the hog often shows itself in an ex- 
traordinary literary appetite, we are not surprised to find that 
the ursine sloth (which, according to natural history, would 
be more properly called the susine bear) has a decided re- 
semblance to the literary loafer. The specimen on the page 
following is a rare character among the native Indians, and 




THE BEAR. 



195 



yet he lias an existence even there. You may recognise him 
in that peculiar lip, which bespeaks the ambition for distinc- 




tion ; in that peculiarly-shaped nose, which indicates the abil- 
ity to run itself into the ground ; and in that general resem- 
blance to the long-lipped bear which indicates extraordinary 
laziness, and the disposition, and thence the necessity, of 



Wff^im^ 




sharing in the prey that is taken by the more courageous and 
noble of the species. The same dispositions, if they did not 
follow so closely upon the hog as to produce a literary turn, 
and were not so ursine as to produce an indisposition to physi- 
cal exertion, would make the petty despot, lording it on his 
own domains, like the autocrat of Russia on his, supported 
and kept in power by the labor and indulgence of others. 

One of the marks of degeneracy in the bear and in the 
Yankee is a peculiar flat-head edness, the result of too near an 
approximation to the hog. This indicates " a flat," in the 



196 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



ordinary acceptation of the term, when applied to character. 
Here is a Yankee loafer that is allowed to belong to the class 




to which this particular designation is applicable. Bearish- 
ness is conspicuous in every limb'and feature, and in the very 




look, but it is like the old-fashioned bearishness which is in* 
digenous to the Old World mingled with that which is in- 



THE BEAR. 



197 



digenous to the New. His appetite, you may be sure, is enor- 
mous, and makes a particular demand for pancakes. His 
resemblance is to an old-country bear, one that carries him a 
good way off from our immediate sympathy : yes, the Thibet 
bear is like him ; they two look enough alike to be brothers. 
Which is the greater loafer it would be difficult to tell. 

The Flat-head Indians, by-the-by, are an example of what 
is indicated by this peculiar form of the physiognomy. By 
increasing the flatness, they illustrate the self-satisfaction 
which is characteristic of folly. Their resemblance to the 
bear is quite remarkable, and so is that of every other tribe 
of American Indians. The Yankee resembles the Indian in 
whatever constitutes are- 
semblance to the bear, and 
too often in those things 
which constitute a resem- 
blance to the hog. The 
Indian lias small hands 
and feet, and therein he 
differs from the bear, but 
between him and the Chi- 
naman a striking similar- 
ity of features and expres- 
sions has been often ob- 
served. This is invariably 
the case with the meaner 
sort of Indians and the same class in China. The principle 
of degeneracy in this case is a loss of distinction between the 

hog and the bear — a 
sort of fusion and amal- 
gamation of the two — 
and this takes place, 
although the Indians 
and the Chinese never 
see each other. 

Above is a charac- 
teristic Indian face — 
and it is seen to have 





1P3 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY, 

a great deal of Yankee expression in it. The grizzly bear is 
the variety that claims the honor of this comparison. There 
is nothing of that leering, sneaking, dishonest expression which 
there is in the foreign bears and in the countenances that re- 
semble them, but a straight-forward, hungry, mind-his-own- 
business expression which it is gratifying to meet with in a 
savage of such extraordinary prowess. In California there is 
a tribe of Indians, called Root-diggers, whose track is so like 
that of the grizzly bear, that it can only be distinguished by 
the size. The ball of the foot is more deeply indented in the 
ground in consequence of their treading more heavily on that 
part of the foot, like an animal. They are thought by some 
to be a link between man and brute, as if it were possible for 
such a link to exist. And why is this? It is because their 
resemblance to the bear has degenerated into that of the hog. 
They subsist entirely on roots and acorns, refusing flesh, and 
having no knowledge of agriculture. The only article they 
are capable of manufacturing is a basket, so tightly woven as 
to hold water; and this is invariably conical, so that when 
they set it down they must make a hole in the ground to re- 
ceive it. This reminds us of the Chinese cap, and of the form 
that is characteristic of the Chinese architecture. They make 
themselves holes to crawl into by sticking bushes into the 
ground, bending them over, and placing dirt upon the top; 
and there they live like hogs. They propagate their species 
at the season proper to animals, and have the smallest degree 
of parental love, as they have not the least of the conjugal. 
They converse more by the motions of their bodies than by 
words, and seem to know scarcely anything. They spend 
most of their time upon their haunches. They are naked 
and exceedingly filthy. Their arms are short and stubby, the 
bone from the shoulder to the elbow being long in proportion 
to the forearm, the hand bearing no small resemblance to a 
paw, and the whole arm bent and inclined inward, like the 
hind feet of the bear. Their faces are ugly, and vacant of 
anything human except in so small a degree that it is scarcely 
to be perceived. In short, they illustrate perfectly the prin- 
ciple that confounding the resemblance of the bear with that 



THE BEAR. 



199 



of the hog is the lowest degradation to which it is possible to 
attain. 

If we were going to have a sermon on that subject, it could 




not be more appropriately given than by one who resembles 
a bear, as it must be supposed that such a one would have a 
better appreciation of 
the subject than any 
other. The person who 
resembles such a bear 
as this must have a 
tongue, and be able to 
use it. He will paw 
about his ideas over 
the heads of his audi- 
ence, until he has mag- 
netized them into a 
sound sleep! He is 
no " flat," as you can 
see at a glance, but to 
be at the opposite extreme is almost as bad :- 




200 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

"His speech is a fine sample, on the whole, 
Of rhetoric which the learned call rigmarole." 

You can not doubt of his ability to do justice to pork and 
beans, and that he would prefer dumplings to pancakes : — 

" The large, round dumpling, rolling from the pot," 

is the signal for extraordinary preparations. The reason for 
his head being so round is, its perfect sympathy with his 
stomach. The bear that resembles him in this and other re- 
spects is a Bornean, and one that killed himself with kindness, 
in the benevolent labor of endeavoring to satisfy appetite. 

An Indian is capable of compensating in a single meal for 
a fast of several days, and of voluntarily abstaining for a week 
in anticipation of a bear-hunt ; for hunger stimulates destruc- 
tiveness, and goads him to desperation. He needs a basti- 
nado like this to compel him to kill the bear, for the bear is 
his divinity in form, his beau-ideal, the very perfection of that 
savage nature which he delights in. 

" The pursuit of these animals," says a writer on natural 
history, "is a matter of the first importance to some of the 
Indian tribes, and is never undertaken without much cere 
mony. A principal warrior gives a general invitation to all 
the hunters. This is followed by a strict fast of eight days, 
in which they totally abstain from food, but during which the 
day is passed in continual song. This is done to invoke the 
spirits of the woods to direct the hunters to the places where 
there are abundance of bears. They even cut the flesh in 
divers parts of their bodies, to render the spirits more propi- 
tious. They also address themselves to the spirits of the beasts 
slain in preceding chases, and implore these to direct them 
to an abundance of game. The chief of the hunt now gives a 
great feast, at which no one dares to appear without first 
bathing. At this entertainment, contrary to their usual cus- 
tom, they eat with great moderation. The master of the feast 
touches nothing, but is employed in relating to the guests an- 
cient tales of feats in former chases; and fresh invocations to 
the spirits of the deceased bears conclude the whole 

"As soon as a bear is killed, a hunter puts into his moutb 



THE BEAR. 



201 



a lighted pipe of tobacco, and, blowing into it, fills the throat 
with smoke, conjuring the spirit of the animal not to resent 
what they are about to do to its body, or to render their future 
chases unsuccessful. As the beast makes no reply, they cut 
out the string of the tongue, and throw it into the fire. If 
it crackle and shrivel up (which it is almost sure to do), they 
accept this as a good omen ; if not, they consider that the 
spirit of the beast is not appeased, and that the chase of the 
next year will be unfortunate." 

But the Indian must give way. We call the English 
" John Bull ;" in return for the compliment, we think thev 




should call us "Neighbor Bruin." The largest rivers, lakes, 
bears, and Yankees, are to be found here. The American 




202 compatcattve physiognomy. 

who looks across the water for his ideas and other commodi 
ties will resemble the European bear, which has more of a 
swinish look and disposition than our own ; or he will resem- 
ble the grizzly bear in the " Zoological Gardens." The Amer- 
ican black bear, in the degree that he approaches the pig, is 
less noble than some of the other varieties, but his look is dm 
of a genuine Yankee notwithstanding. The foregoing is a 
regular " Down-Easter," and the animal that looks like his 
shadow is an old-fashioned New England bear. Dress " Broth- 
er Jonathan" (of whom this is an accurate representation) in 
Indian costume, and you could almost swear that he was an 
Indian, and that intercourse with the pale faces had turned 
him white. 

There is a style of American face superior to this : it is 
that which is most commonly met with in the capitol of the 
nation ; and there is a variety of Indian face that corresponds 
with it. The Americans with this cast of countenance are of 
the grizzly variety; they are hard to kill, and, under severe 
provocation, when their revenge is roused, they are fearful 
enemies to grapple with. The temperament is melancholic, 
and therewith mild and gentle, but exceedingly powerful. 
The Indian, like the bear, spends his life in the woods, is taci- 
turn, dark, gloomy, and retired, and by nature a perfect sav- 
age; but by distinguishing these traits from those which are 
similar in the hog, we have them represented on a higher 
plane, as in the variety of American character just referred 
to. This resemblance is seen in the gait and posture as well 
as in the face. 

But the polar bear, represented on the following page, with 
his fine Indian counterpart, resembles a nobler race of Ameri- 
cans still. These are they who represent greatness, the pillars 
of the constitution, with clear, cold intellects, touched only 
by moonbeams, that have no power to dissolve them. They 
represent truth, uninfluenced by fear or favor. With less of 
clemency, tenderness, and forbearance, than the last men- 
tioned, they are nevertheless the guardians of these, and as 
such they loom up in the distance, cloud capped and dismal, 
and — 



THE BEAR. 



203 



like giants stand 



To sentinel enchanted land."' 

And yet under that cold exterior there 
is the lava of love ; under that snow- 
white mantle there is a warm heart that 
can not endure a nearer approach to the 
6un ; beneath that countenance, " emo- 
tionless as the sphinx," there is the well- 
spring of sympathy and good feeling: — 



— '• "The gloomy outside 

Contains the shining treasure of a soul, 
Resolved and brave.*' 

The cavern, overhung with ice-crags, 
which he makes his home, is the guard 
of domestic virtue ; obtained with diffi- 
culty, it is secure from danger, and the 
love which conquers all things preserves 
the treasure which it obtained by toil and 
suffering. 

The strength, bravery, faithfulness, 
and parental affection of the polar bear, 
are so interesting as to be familiar to ev- 
ery reader ; but for that very reason we 





204 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

may venture to quote the following in illustration of the nobie 
virtues that may be set forth, or at least symbolized, by a sav- 
age monster, being those very traits in the animal nature upon 
which should be reared the superstructure of American char- 
acter, and hence of American institutions. We would remark 
here that the courage of the white bear is essential to his other 
good qualities : — 

" Of the ferocity of the polar bear, Barentz gives a striking 
proof. In Nova Zembla they attacked his sailors, carried 
them off in their mouths with the utmost facility, and de- 
voured them in sight of their comrades. A few years ago, 
some sailors in a boat fired at and wounded one. In spite of 
his receiving another shot, he swam after the boat, and en- 
deavored to climb into it. One of his feet was cut off with a 
hatchet, but he still pursued the aggressors to the ship. Nu- 
merous additional wounds did not check his fury : mutilated 
as he was, he ascended the ship's side, drove the sailors into 
the shrouds, and was following them thither, when a mortal 
shot stretched him dead on the deck. 

" But even this formidable animal is not without its good 
qualities. It is a faithful mate and an affectionate parent. 
Hearne tells us that, at certain seasons of the year, the males 
are so much attached to their mates, that he has often seen 
one of them, on a female being killed, come and put his paws 
over her, and rather suffer himself to be shot than abandon 
her. 

" While the Carcase frigate, which went out some years 
ago to make discoveries toward the North pole, was locked 
in the ice, early one morning the man at the mast-head gave 
notice that three bears were making their way very fast over 
the frozen ocean, and were directing their course toward the 
ship. They had, no doubt, been invited by the scent of some 
blubber of a walrus that the crew had killed a few days he- 
fore, which had been set on fire, and was burning on the ice 
at the time of their approach. They proved to be a she-bear 
and her two cubs, but the cubs were nearly as large as the 
dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out of the flames 
part of the flesh of the walrus that remained unconsumed, and 



THE BEAR. 205 

ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship threw upon the 
ice great lumps of the flesh of the sea-horse which they had 
still remaining. These the old bear fetched away singly, laid 
every lump before her cubs as she brought it, and dividing 
it, gave to each a share, reserving but a small portion to her- 
self. As she was fetching away the last piece, the sailors lev- 
elled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead ; 
and in her retreat they wounded the dam, but not mortally. 
It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling 
minds to have marked the affectionate concern expressed by 
this poor beast in the last moments of her expiring young 
ones. Though she was herself dreadfully wounded, and could 
but jnst crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the 
lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done others 
before, tore it in pieces, and laid it before them ; and when 
she saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon 
one and then upon the other, and endeavored to raise them 
up. When she found she could not stir them, she went off, 
and when she had got to some distance she looked back and 
moaned. Finding this to no purpose, she returned, and, smel- 
ling round, began to lick their wounds. She went off a sec- 
ond time as before ; and, having crawled a few paces, looked 
again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But 
still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them 
again, and, with signs of inexpressible fondness, went round 
pawing them and moaning. Finding at last that they were 
cold and lifeless, she raised her head toward the ship, and 
uttered a growl of despair, which the murderers returned with 
a volley of musket-balls. She fell between her cubs, and died 
licking their wounds." 



206 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

This man resembles an Indian (foreigner though he be), 
and it is plain that he resembles both the Yankee and the 
bear. There is something in the look of the eye (a kind of 
Indian sqnint), and something in the cast of the nose and lip, 
and the angle of the mouth, and in the hair, that shows a re- 
markable agreement with the accompanying bear, which is 




one of the grizzly bears in the Zoological Gardens. Watch 
those eyes narrowly (the bear's eyes), and you will see some- 
thing roguish in them : that is Yankee roguishness. It is 
coupled, you see, with a wonderfully honest expression in the 
other parts of the countenance, and with a tout ensemble that 
excites your sympathy, and prepares you to be taken in. 
Your first impression is that he is in a deplorable situation, 
and that he would not deceive you for all the world, and you 
are ready to give him as good a bargain as he asks. You 
feel assured that he is sufficiently self-sacrificing to take up 
with "a living profit," and to live on porridge in order that 
you may be supplied with all the articles of luxury and refine- 



THE BEAK. 207 

ment that you desire. He makes you think that, being in 
want of the necessaries, he parts with his things at a sacrifice ; 
that you would very greatly oblige him if you would consult 
your own interest; or that you are a very benevolent individ- 
ual, without any eye to selfish advantage — whichever you 
please : and the result may be, that you will exchange neces- 
saries for luxuries, and be in want of the former while he 
enjoys them both. There is a great disposition in people to 
put confidence in the bear, but he is generally known to be 
more treacherous than he looks. Again we say, study those 
eyes, for they are a study : do you not see that they " reckon" 
and "kind o' calculate"? They are full of study — there are 
volumes in them. 

The Yankee says frankly that he " guesses/' for like other 
people he attaches merit to his peculiarities. It is "specula- 
tion" that you see in those eyes, both the bear's and the man's. 
i r ou can discover in that man's countenance that his head is 
full of plans and projects. He would make a good represen- 
tative in Congress, for it is such like people that are sent 
there. The bear represents the American people, and it is 
very proper that their representatives in Congress should be 
bears in various ways, as they are proved to be. They look 
like the preceding animal when they are thinking of the 
" loaves and fishes," but they are " ravenous as bears" when 
it comes to a demonstration of the principle that "to the vic- 
tors belong the spoils." But this too literal resemblance to 
the bear is illustrated chiefly in personal and sectional inter- 
ests, while the " affairs of the nation" call for a resemblance 
upon a higher plane, where the moral and intellectual facul 
ties predominate over the animal. 

The older the Americans grow, the more they look and act 
Jike bears, provided the animal nature is not kept under by 
cultivation and refinement. Observe how much the foregoing 
bear resembles, in posture and in everything, the remnant of 
old people who come under the denomination of " revolution- 
ary soldiers." In the manner of standing there is something 
original ; it looks like standing to make a speech of four hours' 
length ; it is Websterian, is it not ? The walk is equally 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



singular ; it is a kind of " Indian trot," a gait which the green 
Yankee has fallen into as if it were natural to him. The 

Indian female here presented 
is an example of it; and the 
following, which is the grizzly 
bear in motion, exhibits the gait 
in its original perfection. It 
is evident, too, that the " In- 
dian dance" and the " bear- 
dance" are very similar; and 
Yankee dancing differs very 
little from either, as illustrated 
by Darley in the portrait of 
Ichabod Crane taking part in 
a dance, in which the position 
of the arms and the motion of 
the nether extremities are wor- 
thy of Bruin. 

The Indian is seen generally 

looking down ; he walks with 

a limberness of the knees ; he 

sets down the whole foot at 

once, but rises upon the toe when the foot leaves the ground : 

he f urns his toes inward, and his fingers outward when h& 





THE BEAK. 



209 




rests his hands; and in these and other ursine resemblances 
the modern native American is his interior. But as noble a 
superstructure may be built upon this basis as upon any other, 
and before we get through we may say " a nobler." Here is 
the face of an Indian, a Cliippeway warrior, that resembles 
the grizzly bear, while it exhib- 
its the signs of benevolence, 
probity, and justice, with pru- 
dence and discretion. His 
name, Meta-Koosega, or Pure 
Tobacco, compared with the 
names of other Indian warriors, 
is expressive of rare virtue and 
excellence; — and should you 
meet him in the forest, you 
would not doubt for a moment, 
on looking at his face, of his 
willingness to smoke witli you 
the pipe of peace. There is something in the temperament 
and contour, the gait and carriage, and in the general expres- 
sion, that constitutes a striking resemblance between the In- 
dian and the bear. 

It is well known that the parent-bear and the cub are very 
much attached to each other. The passion of parental love 
in the former is indicated by the length and elevation of the 
loins, of which the polar variety is the strongest example. 
"We have read that a bear, having lost her cubs, has carried 
off pigs from a sty, and adopted them as her own — which 
was most natural, considering that there is so much affinity 
between the hog and the bear, and that parental love in the 
latter is so very strong. The length and vigor of the loins 
in the squaw, indicating the same quality of parental love as 
in the bear, is very great, and it is known that the Indians 
have many times stolen children from the whites and brought 
them up in their own way. On the following page is the por- 
trait of a female who was reared by Indians, having been 
captured by them in infancy ; and we see how completely 
she is metamorphosed into a resemblance of her foster-parents. 

14 



210 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




The change appears to have been inimical to beauty, perhaps 
because it was too sudden, or because the materials were not 
of the right kind. 

Parental love in the 
bear is reciprocated by 
an almost equal de- 
gree of filial affection 
on the part of the cub. 
In the young Indian 
the affection for pa- 
rents is very strong. 
The whole race of ab- 
original Americans — 
that are worthy of the 
name — are celebrated 
for their love and rev- 
erence for their forefathers and the graves of their ancestors. 
Filial affection, which reciprocates parental, causes the cub 
and the Indian child to be more fully formed than others at 
the same age, and to be early developed but not precocious, 
in order that they niay do as much for their parents as their 
parents have done for them. This mutual strength of paren- 
tal and filial affection has the mutual love of the parents for 
its foundation and no other; and this foundation is strongei 
in the Indian than in any other savage in the world, and 
stronger in the bear than in any other beast. The poignant 
grief and suffering of the Indian when his wife and children 
are taken from him by the malice of an enemy, show the 
strength and nobleness of his nature, and how excellent a 
foundation for a superstructure of civilization and refinement 
is a resemblance to the bear. As the conjugal relation is the 
origin of all others, so conjugal love is the basis of all the do- 
mestic and social affections, and all the relations of life are 
dependent upon these. Brother Jonathan, therefore, in his 
resemblance to the Indian and the bear, has a more glorious 
destiny than any nation in the world, and it is only a degen- 
eracy like that of some of the Indian tribes into a resemblance 
to the hog (which is the very opposite of the bear in respect 



THE BEAR. 211 

to conjugal, parental, and filial affection) that will destroy 
him. 

Be it observed that filial love is appropriate to the child, 
though it reciprocates parental affection and is like parental 
love in relation to second childhood, and that it preserves 
childhood and develops manhood at the same time. The 
bear, the Indian, and the Yankee, agree in this: they exhibit 
a remarkable degree of forwardness at the outset, and at the 
same time an uncouthness of figure and gesture that is in lu- 
dicrous contrast with the shrewdness of the intellect. The 
early development of manhood, and of the bodily and mental 
strength appropriate to it, together with the preservation of 
childhood, and the consequent backwardness and immaturity, 
are illustrated in Daniel Webster (a portrait of whom is pre- 
sented on the following page), Henry Clay, and very many 
of our public men, as well as in the Indian. How often do 
we see the " overgrown boy" in the person of some distin- 
guished individual, a powerful orator, a wise counsellor, a 
great statesman ! A person not experienced would call him 
a "country bumpkin," a "greenhorn," and various other 
names, expressing the infantile side of the character, without 
taking a view of the manly one. 

The genuine Yankee, who presents the true type of the 
American character, has no local habitation, but, like the In- 
dian, is diffused everywhere over this North American conti- 
nent. It is a mistake to suppose that he originated in New 
England : the national peculiarities were first developed there, 
but the Yankee is a production of every state in the Union, 
and his characteristics increase in intensity in proportion to 
his wandering habits and to his occupation of the territories 
of the red man. In Oregon, Texas, California, and New 
Mexico, he is more a Yankee than ever, and his new provin- 
cialisms show his love of being separate and distinct from all 
others. He is as intent upon creating a nationality of his 
own as we should suppose it possible to be if the Indian were 
not a stronger example of the same disposition. But in a 
mining country those who resemble bears are more liable to 
run into a resemblance to the hog than in any other, as ia 



212 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOftNOMY. 




evident from the greater resemblance of the Indian tribes in 
those regions to the latter animal than to the former. Where 
the bear is noblest, there the American may be so, and there 
also he is most liable to perversion. Where Indian civiliza- 
tion was greatest, there Indian degradation is lowest, and so 
it must be with the white men who occupy their places. 

Of all simpletons and fools, the Yankee charlatan and im- 
postor is the shallowest and most disgusting. In the pos- 
session of slyness, affectation, and imposture, he resembles 
the Indian ; and these, combined with a roaming disposition, 
acquisitiveness, and the love of traffic, make the "Yankee 
pedlar," famed for taking everything in exchange, and thus 
for the variety of his goods. Now the Indians whom we 
have known from our childhood are those who wander about 
peddling moccasins, besides brooms and baskets made of 
wood, split, and splintered, and stained, and who receive in 
exchange provisions, clothes, and money ; and though they 



THE BEAR. 



213 




appear so very demure, they are very fond of practical jokes, 
which they perpetrate with great gravity — a peculiarity in 
which the Yankee partakes as if it were natural to him. The 
latter resorts to " tricks in trade" with as much sobriety as 
the Indian — with the seriousness of one who is engaged in a 
lawful calling. If this is proof of any relationship between 
the Indian and the Jew, the white American will also, in the 
course of time, prove himself to be the same lost tribe that 
the Indians are supposed to be. 

Why is it that " Brother Jonathan," when he is " driving a 
bargain," whittles a stick? and why is it that he drives the 
stick into the ground when he comes to the conclusion that 
he has "a Yankee to deal with"? This is a question that a 
philosopher might be puzzled to answer. Be it observed, 
however, that the extemporaneous mechanic is engaged in 
whittling out an arrow; that he points it, and is prepared to 
shoot it, like an Indian — when suddenly he discovers that, 
for the lack of coolness, or in consequence of the shrewdness 
of the person he has to deal with, he has "run the thing into 
the ground" — a misfortune which lie commemorates by dri- 
ving down the stick, and marking the spot where it happened 



214 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

The Indian is a hunter: at all times and under all circum- 
stances he is found in some search or research, either pro- 
found or superficial, and this gives him that thoughtful, medi- 
tative look, which it is so difficult to penetrate. In this he 
is like the Yankee on the one hand and the bear on the other. 
The look we are speaking'of is often mistaken for a proof of 
something extraordinary — as if the person could search foi 
nothing of less importance than the philosopher's stone, when 
the truth is he can not search for anything, not even for a flea, 
without the same expression of mysterious learning. To most 
people such faces are impenetrable, for the simple reason that 
they indicate the ignorance of the mind in regard to the mys- 
teries that it is engaged in penetrating ; but this, we perceive, 
is a proof of the want of knowledge, and it may relate to 
trifles as well as to matters of consequence. The Indian 
receives much greater credit for wisdom than he deserves ; 
and one of the peculiarities of the Yankee is his uncommon 
sapience in matters that he knows nothing about. It is his 
business to hunt, and nothing is found that he himself has not 
discovered. If you tell him anything new, he expresses no 
surprise, but professes to have known it all before, and still 
wears that sage expression which indicates that he is penetra- 
ting still deeper into the same subject. Be he never so igno- 
rant, his hunting disposition makes him wise in politics and 
in the affairs of the country generally, and you can hint at 
nothing in divinity or law, or in ancient or modern history, 
that he is not familiar with. As this is from a propensity of 
his that must needs be gratified, it requires only the removal 
of hypocrisy by honesty, and self-love by benevolence, to make 
him in reality what he claims to be. 

We have been struck with the excess of the Yankee pecu- 
liarity described above in the character of the Indian — in 
one w T ho is penetrated with a literary ambition. He wishes 
to fire everybody with the idea that he is a wit, a poet, and 
a scholar. Nothing disturbs his equanimity, nothing surprises 
him. He listens to everything you say as if he did not hear, 
and looks as if be might enlighten your ignorance beyond 
measure, if it were not for the vulgar astonishment that would 



THE BEAR 215 

be excited, and the attention that he wishes to avoid. But 
he is one of those whom prudence forsakes in consequence of 

" Vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself." 
fie " attempts to live by his wits, and fails for want of stock," 
and then is discovered his true genius, which is his ability 
to "run his face" for whatever literary capital may be neces- 
sary to acquire him fame — till he runs himself out! 

The bear looks always as if he were intent upon the object 
of pursuit. In his solitary wandering he is not tempted to 
turn aside except to revenge himself. His instinct demands 
to be let alone, and he concedes the same privilege to others. 
In these respects the Indian and the Yankee agree with him 
perfectly. The sense of individual rights is very strong in 
them as well as in him. They will not be trampled upon; 
they will not pa} r tribute, nor render involuntary service ; the 
country they live in must be their own ; they must be able to 
wander far upon their own lands ; they must possess a right 
in the soil, a home, so that each one may say — 
" This is my own, my native land !" 

The Indian is ennobled in the estimation of the white 
American for the possession of those qualities which the lat- 
ter discovers in himself; and the bear is honored by the un- 
conscious imitation of his peculiarities. When you meet him, 
if he is not pressed with hunger, he turns aside and allows 
you to pass on your way, for he recognises his own individual 
right and yours, and he expects you to recognise your own 
and his: but if you are so cowardly as to fire a ball into him 
from a distance, he turns upon you with the most tremendous 
rage and fury ; and as this can be of no service to him unless 
he can come in contact with you, it is proof of his courage, 
and that his disposition to mind his own business is not caused 
by fear. In this the Yankee is his imitator as well as in other 
things, and it was well expressed, at a time when it was being 
illustrated, in the words — 

<4 Yankee Doodle is a lad, 

He's honest, kind, and civil; 
But if, again, you make him mad, 
He'll flog you like the d evil !" 



216 



COMPAEATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



The last person referred to may simply mean the bear ; for, 
like the bear, the Yankee is courageous ; he gives the enemy 





a cordial welcome ; he is 
Tf^, bound to fold him in his 
embrace; he advances in 
the face of danger ; the 
more he is wounded, the 
more he rushes upon the deadly weapons; the stronghold he 
takes by storm; he assails with the desperation of a "forlorn 
nope ;" he struggles in the very embrace of death — 

*• Foiled, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last," 

he meets death joyously, whichever may be crushed in the 
embrace. It is such anger as only he who resembles the bear 
is capable of, that says — 

" O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth ! 
Then with a passion would I shake the world !" 

The war-whoop of the Indian is something peculiar, and the 
loud shouts of the white Americans when they storm a battery 
is probably from the same cause. 

The bear has the highest appreciation of luxuries and deli- 
cacies, and is at the same time in desperate hurry to devour 
his food. He searches the woods and plains for vegetables 
of a fine flavor, such as berries and fruits, and climbs trees 
and exposes himself to" the stings of a thousand bees for the 
pleasure which the taste of honey affords him. As rough and 
»*ude as he is, he is contented with nothing short of nectar and 
ambrosia ; and there are no people in the world so fond of 
sweets as the Americans, both the red men and the whites. 



THE BEAR. 217 

The index of this exquisite taste is the richness and lustre of 
the eye, all those qualities which are included in a pearly 
appearance, whatever be the color of the iris. This sign is per- 
fect in the bear, though on account of the smallness of his eye 
it is not generally observed ; and as to the eye of the Indian, 
it is sufficient to say that there is none so beautiful as his. 
As of everything beautiful, the more you look at it the more 
you admire it. The power of fascination is chiefly in the eye, 
and when beauty exerts this influence it commands a tribute 
that is not always deserved. 

The charmers called "psychologists," " mesmerizers," and 
other names of the same import, have the quality of eye re- 
ferred to, and a strong resemblance to the Indian. The por- 
trait at the beginning of this chapter is very like that of the 
chief of psychologists, whose face appears at the commence- 
ment of his works on that subject. Such eyes contribute 
very much to the magic power that is ascribed to eloquence 
— that of "persuading people to believe in the existence of 
something that never was and never will be." The Yankee 
has such persuasion in his eyes when his object is to " bar- 
gain, lease, and convey." The eyes called " eloquent" are 
truly dangerous, because, like eloquence, they monopolize 
belief, and prevent the intrusion of a doubt. 

But it is not the intention of Nature to deceive. A pearly 
richness and lustre of the eye indicate exquisite taste in ref- 
erence to food ; and in proportion as the mind is elevated it 
indicates refinement of taste in dress, buildings, furniture, 
manners, literature, eloquence, and in everything of which 
taste may be predicated. It indicates refinement, but it may 
be "refined cruelty," "refined roguery," and "refined deceit," 
as well as " refined sensibility," " refined manners," and " re- 
fined intellect." As in reference to food, taste is related to 
what is good, or fit to be eaten ; and so in individuals and in 
art it is related to excellence, to virtue, purity, and goodness, 
or to whatever is deserving of love; but there is sweetness 
in poison, and the like quality is not unfrequently discovered 
in men and women of base passions, of whom it is said, " The 
poison of asps is under their lips." 



218 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

If there is anything in the eye of the American to disiin 
guish it from others, it is the quality we are speaking of. Let 
the eyes of the New-Englanders speak for themselves. The 
Boston ladies deserve to be celebrated for the beauty of their 
eyes, which are like those of the Indian. As their ancestors 
were the earliest inhabitants of the country, their eyes are 
more beautiful than those of Americans in general. They 
are equally remarkable for the richness and delicacy of ev- 
erything in which they have an opportunity to display their 
taste. Their clothing is silk, and vies in lustre with the eye. 
The Americans are not slow to acknowledge the exquisite taste 
of the Indian costume, and of everything ornamental which 
the rude art of the Indian is capable of producing. In steam- 
boats, and whatever else is new, the Americans show more 
taste than the Europeans. 



THE GOOSE. 



219 



CHAPTER XXVII 



If our idea be correct, the "Russian bear" will turn out to 
be a goose. We make no reflection on the mental capacity 
of that distinguished personage, but shall not cry his favor so 
much as if we had not discovered the resemblance just al- 
luded to. Here is a person, the emperor Paul, who has been 

introduced to the reader twice be- 
fore, and each time as one of the 





"greatest geese" that was ever hatched from a golden egg. 
It appears that his mother, Catharine II., was ashamed of 
him, and wished to pass him over "in favor of his son Alex- 
ander, whom, in her will, she appointed to succeed to the 
throne." The latter individual (see next page) seems to us to 
have no small resemblance to a duck (a bird that in its essen- 
tial points differs very little from the goose) ; and that he was 
looked upon by his grandmother as a duck, while his father 
was regarded as a " goosey," is quite an argument in favor of 
our science. 

But all geese are not deficient in intellect. A gander saved 
an ancient city from storm, for geese were great at prognosti- 
cating storms, and they are the same now that they were 



220 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




then. The Russians are equally " up to snuff," and it waa 
very gooselike to set*Moscow on fire to save it from the French 
— gooselike in two senses, for it required a foolish noddle to 

suggest the idea, and it 
turned out to be a capi- 
tal expedient. Many a 
bright idea has its origin 
in a goose's brain — for 
truth is simple, and is 
better suited to the sim- 
ple-minded than to the 
sophistical. As there is 
"but one step from the 
sublime to the ridicu- 
lous," so there is but one 
step from reason to com- 
mon sense, and it is ex- 
pressed in the word expediency. The Russians are full of 
expedients, for, like the goose, they have large subterfuge. 
The hair growing down in 
a point in the centre of the 
forehead indicates the fiery 
action of subterfuge, as the 
pitching downward of the 
forehead itself over the top 
of the nose and the inner 
angle of the eye indicates 
the watery action of the 
same faculty. The one is 
the choleric and the other 
the phlegmatic mode in 
which this faculty exhibits 
itself. Though the burning 
of Moscow was disastrous to the French, it showed the char- 
acter of the Russians, and illustrated the principle that "it is 
a foul bird that litters its own nest." This is true of the goose, 
and it is the result of expediency. This same faculty leads 
to backbiting, to the undermining of character, to tattling and 




THE GOOSE. 



221 



slander, to burning out men's eyes, and to whatever else Sub- 
terfuge might be supposed to engage in. The goose salutes 
you with the only means that is left her to vent the slander 




of her serpent-tongue, a hiss, and she runs at you from be- 
hind with a serpentine movement; and the least objectiona- 
ble of all the manifestations of this faculty is her fondness for 
gabbling. This was the charac- 
ter of the female progenitor of 
the three princes whose portraits 
are given on this and the prece- 
ding pages, the last of whom is 
the grand-duke Constantine, a 
younger son of Paul, whose ty- 
rannical government of Poland 
is well known. Though we have 
treated them as subjects for char- 
coal sketches, they should, to 
have justice done them, be treat- 
ed in a more elaborate way. But 
as there is a law of antagonism 
between fire and water, so also 

there are two actions of subterfuge, the one intended to extin- 
guish the other. When one is in excess, the other is neces 
sary to counteract it ; for as of those two elements so of these, 
" they are good servants but hard masters." 

The goose is a sort of leathered swine, as much like the 
Russian as the hog is like the Chinese, who are therefore sim- 




222 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



ilar. She forbids you to trespass upon her territories ; en- 
croaching on others, she discovers that encroachments are 
being made on her rightful dominions, and is slow to back 
out from those which she herself has made. When she has 
once taken possession of a field it is almost impossible to 
drive her from it, and the more you try the harder it is, for 
she has a propensity to go against obstacles, as is illustrated 
in her flying against the wind. Of course, then, she has a 
wide range, which implies a wide territory, but she is also 
attached to home. She is not to be disfranchized, and she 
snugs herself up by the side of other geese so closely, that there 
is no danger of their not keeping together, or at least within 
hailing distance; and each one interdicts the other from vio- 
lating any of the rules of mu- 
tual help and protection. He 
(or rather she, for there is not 
much manhood in the char- 
acter of the goose) is always 
troubling herself about the af- 
fairs of her neighbors, and 
therefore the flock is kept 
within bounds and they keep 
each other in order, of which 
we have the most perfect il- 
lustration in the flight of wild 
geese, for each one has to be 
at his post to attend to his 
neighbor, and in giving or- 
ders they all pipe at a time. 
They are fond of ordering 
each other to hush and mind 
their own business, but this 
is done with an eye to the 
general good ; or, rather, this 
is the result of each one's at- 
tending to his own personal 
safety by shielding himself under the wing of the rest, and or- 
dering them to take care of themselves, to mind their eyes, and 




THE GOOSE. 



223 




to follow his example. Of course, then, the goose is no fool : 
the only fool in the nock is the one that, like the emperor 
Paul,minds other peo- 
ple's business without 
knowing sufficient to 
take care of himself, 
and who accordingly 
goes ahead, takes the 
responsibility, and is 
thrust forward by the 
wiser ones who know 
the danger, and who 
treat him as the odd 
one, and exclude him 
from the honor of be- 
ing included in the 
general estimate of 

geese. The goose proper, in all the traits enumerated above, 
is the precise counterpart of the Russians 

To descend from the body politic to the body corporate, 
the goose is very warm-blooded ; he is fond of ice and snow, 
and of a vigorous climate, which remind him of his feathers, 
and make him gather his clothing more snugly and warmly 
around him. The Russian is fond of his ice-hills, which he 
manufactures especially for his convenience and for the pleas- 
ure of curling his legs under him and lying low; and he is 
fond of plunging into snow, as into a bed of down, and of 
muffling himself in furs, and of travelling in a cottage. This 
is his method of sojourning. The goose is so well provided 
with comfortable clothing, that by others she is supposed to 
have " enough and to spare" — and when she is " tamed," as 
it is called, or brought under the influence of their wills, she 
thinks as they do. Plucked of his feathers, the gander loses 
his noble instincts ; he feels oddly ; he is not even a weather 
guide ; he wanders about, with " his nose turned up to the 
wind," but he is not able to prognosticate a storm, he is lost, 
he acts as oddly as he feels, and has the appearance of a 
" perfect goosey." The Russian who resemble* this specimen 



224 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY . 

of a goose goes thinly clad, is destitute of foresight; and saga- 
city, and, with the power in his hands, would insist on every 
other peiaon wearing thin clothes and being as great a fool as 
himself. This, again, was the emperor Paul, whom, the reader 
perceives, we are strongly tempted to " pick at" and to reduce 
to the condition of " a bird without feathers." This would be 
" making a man of him," according to Plato's definition ; but 
as we are r\o§ Platonists, we will turn him over to the disciples 
of the philosopher to finish. 

The fox lives on the sagacity and foresight of the goose, 
and therefore he has an abundance of both; but there are 
foolish geese that have lost their feathers, and are strayed 
away, and have not the spirit even to hiss or spit fire at their 
oppressors ; and it was probably some cowardly fox in the 
habit of making mutton of such geese as these that lost his 
tail in a trap, and then proposed to his neighbors to adopt the 
same fashion. We have no doubt but that the nose of that 
animal was a snub and " turned up to the wind," and that he 
had a look similar to that of the goose, as the wolf has a like- 
ness to the sheep, and that therefore he was perfectly sincere 
in the proposition ; and that for that matter he might be re- 
garded as a cockatrice hatched from the egg of a goose. Such 
is the character of a certain one among the Russians who will 
figure "positively for the last time" — we can not say when. 



THE SWAN. 



225 



CHAPTER XXYII1. 

Here is a person who, if he be not very much mistaken, 
has the air of a swan. In him it looks like an affectation of 
grace and dignity, but 
in the swan we admire 
it exceedingly. With- 
out it the bird is both 
ugly and uncouth. It 
must consequently be 
something admirable, 
and for this reason it 
is the object of hypo- 
critical imitation. It 
is the character of a 
devotee that gives this 
expression of counte- 
nance, accompanied 
with this position of 
the head. A devotee 
may be a votary to 
himself or a votary to 
some religion. "What 
a perfect air of self- 
complacency !" — you 
are ready to exclaim, 
on looking at a person 
with an expression of 
countenance like the above. It is even more than that : it 
is an adoration of something of which himself is both the 
centre and the circumference. He is, in his own estimation, 
a saint, and he expects, when he has given sufficient proof 

15 




COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

of his sanctity by mortifications of the flesh, to be canonized 
by the vulgar. He is the victim of blind superstition, and of 
violence inflicted by his own hands. Silliness is the charac- 
teristic of the man who goes to an extreme in his resemblance 
to the goose, but insanity characterizes the man who bears a 
like resemblance to the swan. By this we mean a literal re- 
semblance, and not that of which the goose and the swan are 
the representatives. In those who are inclined to insanity 
more than to idiocy, there is an affectation of grace and dig- 
nity, and a hypocritical sanctity, which says, " I am holier 
than thou" — accompanied with a condescending modesty, 
that seems to say : " You could not expect me to let down 
my dignity, but I will nevertheless condescend to speak to 
you; but I am a person of high rank and noble blood, and it 
becomes you to take care how you make too familiar with 
me ; and presently I shall expect you to kneel down and do 
me reverence, for higher beings than you pay their obeisance 
to me. Should you displease me, you might feel my ven- 
geance !" They suspect themselves to be endowed with cer- 
tain Divine attributes that others are not aware of, and that 
it is necessary they should present these glaringly before the 
world, that they may no longer have an excuse for their igno- 
rance and neglect. 

" But what has all this to do with the swan ?" Why, to 
tell the truth, the swan is, in his own estimation, a grandee 
of the highest order. You see it in that dignified bearing, 
by the side of which the pomp and pride of the peacock sink 
into insignificance. He is the very personification of compla- 
cency ; he is perfectly at his ease; all things are as he would 
have them. He looks into his pure, white breast, reflected in 
the placid bosom of the water, and finding there nothing to 
displease him, he is " settled upon his lees," and floats in 
downy voluptuousness like a spirit in a snow-white cloud, not 
doubting but that he is as much an object of devotion to oth- 
ers as he is to himself. He carries his head in such a posi- 
tion that he may not lose sight of "his humble self." He is 
constantly the servant of himself so long as he lives, and with 
audi assiduous care and attention he lives long. The vestal 




THE SWAN. 227 

flame is kept constantly burning, and the stars their vigils 
keep in devotion to the swan, who, floating all night upon the 
water, fancies he is floating among them. He places his 
hand upon his heart (figuratively speaking all the while), and 
asks the world to witness 
its purity, the sincerity of 
his intentions, and the heav- 
en within his own bosom. 
And indeed he is the sym- 
bol of heavenly felicity in 
the human breast, and of 
that purity and devotion 
that are made for each oth- 
er, and that constitute heav- 
en, wherever they may be. 

But he is the symbol also of the very opposite, for the qual- 
ities which he represents are commonly perverted. From his 
stainless breast, and from that realm of purity which his form 
describes, extends something like a serpent with a serpent's 
head, and this, unless it be turned to look at the shadow re- 
flected in the wave, and to explore the depths of that celes- 
tial love which makes its home with the innocent and pure, 
is the serpent full of cunning and malignity, of sensuality 
and pride. Then it is, as when we see him on land, that the 
swan loses all his grace and dignity, and is no loiiger beauti- 
ful, but snakelike and repulsive. Thus it is with the man who 
was formed to be a votary, and forsakes truth ; who abandons 
the purity that is the object of devotion, and that is also the 
native element of the devotee. And he who can turn his 
eyes away from the innocence of his childhood and the prin- 
ciples that were planted in him by the Creator, and then look 
upon the malignant passions that have taken their places, and 
can call these good, is one who has deceived others until he 
has deceived himself, and is in a fair way to become insane. 

One of the symptoms of this malady of the mind, from its 
incipient stages to the degree of confirmation, is "using vain 
repetitions as the heathen do." The devotee who is a self- 
worshipper acquires for himself the name of sanctity, not only 



228 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

by his sanctimonious bearing in the performance of various 
rites and ceremonies, but by " taking the name of God in 
vain ;" and when his delusion has gone so far as to cause him 
to forget himself, there flow from his mouth volleys of oaths. 
An individual like the one figured at the commencement of 
this chapter has an air that may pass for reverence during 
the devotions of a congregation, as when the people rise for 
prayer, or that shall indicate his ability to swear like a pirate. 
The transition from a devotee to a "high buck" is an easy 
one. But in whatever stage of transformation he may be, 
"vain repetitions" will characterize him. You shall see this 
sanctimonious air tinged with a smirk in the person whose 
calling is the repetition of a cry several times a minute during 
the day from one year to another. He is the very person to 
act a conspicuous part in the display of sudden and miracu- 
lous piety. You can hardly repress the spontaneous ebulli- 
tion of "Old hypocrite!" the moment you set eyes on him. 
But words are human, and what you condemn in him is the 
vain repetition of them, by which they are converted into 
"by- words," and you would not be profane because he is. 
The mendicant devotees of India make a sacrilegious use of 
language all their lives, for a "by-word" is that which is often 
repeated. Mockery, too, is characteristic of profanity. In 
persons whose business is the repetition of the same words 
from morning till night, as in beggars and those whose mode 
of selling partakes of the character of begging, you see mock- 
ery written in every part of the countenance. Repetition is 
a mockery of reason and humanity, for reason needs only 
to hear once in order to understand, and humanity needs only 
to hear the cry of pain in order to relieve it, and to fill the 
needy with bread. The repetition that is vain and hypocriti- 
cal deafens the ears to the voice of real necessity, and to the 
voice of humanity, which commands respect like the voice ot 
God. Words are precious pearls that are not to be cast be- 
fore swine; but they who cast them out as dust of the street, 
and, most of all, those who make sacred words thus common, 
mock those whom they deceive, and they mock at the weak- 
ness and the sufferings of poor humanity. Mockery, and a 



THE SWAN. 



229 



caricature of benevolence and honesty, are legible in the faces 
of those who accost the passers-by with an invitation to pur- 
chase ; and even the newsboys, young as they are, have 
enough of this expression of countenance to distinguish them. 
The extreme of this degradation and abuse of words is bab- 
bling insanity. 

All this is the result of a perversion of those qualities which 
constitute a resemblance to the swan. It is therefore the very 
opposite of what we discover in true devotion. The swan is 
grace and dignity " to the very life." As there is no parade 
in that graceful carriage (for we must look to the turkey and 
the peacock for parade), so 
there is no organ of preten- 
sion — no medium of profes- 
sions — or, in other words, no 
voice. His course through 
life is quiet and noiseless, 
save the slight sound of the 
ripples that break upon his 
breast. The devotee who is 
truly devout makes no profes- 
sions : his life is pure, and it 
speaks for itself; it shows also 
the quality of truth, as the 
w T hiteness of the swan shows 
the purity of the element that 
bathes him. He teaches by 
example ; he observes the 
precept, " Use not vain repe- 
titions as the heathen do," but 
whispers, " Our Father who 
art in heaven." 

It may have occurred to 
the reader that in India,where 
the characteristics we have 
described as belonging to the 

devotee are carried to an extreme, is to be found the greatest 
national resemblance to the swan. This is a fact that may be 




230 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY 



easily confirmed by observation. But the Indians resemble 
serpents as well as swans, and for the reason already stated. 
They exhibit the swan in his more disagreeable aspect. In- 
fernal rites and ceremonies, hypocrisy, incoherency, violence 




inflicted on themselves or others, are the characteristics of 
them all. 

That sacred stillness which betokens reverence for truth, a 
disposition to listen to it, to obey it, and thereby to teacli it 
in the most effective manner, or to exhibit it u to the very 
life," is perverted in the enjoining of stillness in the presence 
of those who consider themselves privile'ged to make a noise, 
and of reverence toward those who arrogate to themselves 
peculiar sanctity. You shall see the vestal virgin, whose soul 
is the heaven of tranquillity, and whose life is one of unob- 
trusive benevolence ; and by her side the self-worshipping 
devotee, who is full of professions and hypocritical cant, and 
whose life is devoted to offering up sacrifices on the shrine of 
his selfishness. He wins bribes from the rich, but the poor 
who have nothing to give must appease his vengeance with 
their blood. 



" What smooth emollients in theology 
Recumbent Virtue's downy doctors teach '" 



TTTR SWAN. 231 

but these are for the rich only, who are willing to pay for 
flattery with the blood of the poor. Devoted humanity is 
silent under wrong, silent even to the false devotion that con- 
demns it " as a sheep dumb before her shearers" — not be- 
cause it has no redress, but because it is willing to be sacri- 
ficed in testimony for the truth, which is the greater good. 
But like the dying swan, that is fabled to breathe forth its 
life in enchanting melody, is the martyr in the hour of death. 
When he can no longer teach by example, he can teach as 
one inspired ; and the swan, if the ancient fable be founded 
in nature, is his appropriate symbol even to the last. The 
phoenix, that was consumed in flames and rose again from its 
ashes, was this very bird, or one, according to the represen- 
tations, exceedingly like it. 



232 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

" What ! a man look like a frog?" It is even so : you see 
the resemblance, or yon would not ask the question. In the 

one figure the Frenchman 
is recognised, and in the 
other the frog. You say, 
perhaps, that " the first is 
an exaggeration, and that 
therefore it can not be ta- 
ken as a proof of any spe- 
cial resemblance." Your 
premises we admit, but the 





inference we draw is the very reverse of yours. If the exag- 
geration were not one of the characteristics of the Frenchman, 
you would not recognise the likeness. Yes, monsieur, you 
display astonishment at our boldness; but if you were not 
considerably like the frog, the exaggeration of your peculiari- 
ties would destroy the resemblance altogether. 



THE FROG. 233 

We see, then, a reason for the Frenchman's penchant for 
frogs : it is like that of the Arab fur the camel, the English- 
man for the ox, the Chinese for the hog, and the Indian for 
the bear; and, as it is a poor rule that will not work both 
ways, his fondness for the frog as an article of diet is a rea- 
son for the resemblance. The organs which were the result 
of the life of the animal, and through which the life manifest- 
ed itself, enter the stomach of the Frenchman, and thence 
into the circulation, to nourish and build up the body ; and 
hence it is evident that the reptile we are speaking of becomes 
part and parcel of the Frenchman himself. This is as it 
should be, if, as we imagine, the race of Titans who were 
changed by Latona into frogs, are the race now called French- 
men ! It was in revenge for their refusing water to her and 
her children ; and so they are metamorphosed into the like- 
ness of an animal that lives in water, and has a plenty of it. 

The French should be judged by their own philosophy : 
they say that the mind is a function of the body, or a secre- 
tion, or in some way a production of the brain and other ma- 
terial organs. Therefore, if they build up their bodies with 
those of frogs, they must strengthen and nourish their souls 
from the same elements! We believe that there is a corre- 
spondence between the soul and body throughout, and that 
the former responds instantly to whatever enters into the com- 
position of the latter. The influence which the qualities of 
the frog, so highly esteemed by the Frenchman, must have 
upon the disposition and manners of the consumer, and even 
upon the higher faculties of his mind, is easily inferred, and 
is confirmed by even a hasty glance at his physiognomy. 
Which is the more sociable and noisy ; which the more con- 
stantly engaged in tete-a-tete ; which is the most lithe in all 
his members, and fond of versatility, and of hopping about, 
the Frenchman or the frog, we leave to natural history to 
decide. 

There is as great a variety of Frenchmen as of frogs, and 
love of variety is the characteristic of them both. The won- 
derful disposition of the frog to change his shape, and his 
astonishing capacity to do so, are scarcely *o be distinguished 



234 



COMPAQ A TIVR PHYSIOGNOMY. 



from the same disposition and ability in the Frenchman. 
This is effected by various inflations and puffings out in this 
direction and in that, especially in the region of the neck and 
shoulders. Fashion changes man into as many shapes as 
those of Proteus — without, however (at least in the case of 
the Frenchman), destroying the proper and legitimate indica- 
tions of the character, and the resemblance to the frog. The 
Frenchman displayed here is an unmanly character; he re- 
sembles a female ; and it 
must be confessed that the 
French follies we are now 
speaking of are exhibited 
more in women than in 
men. The French are like 
women in their looks, their 
actions, their judgment, 
their unwillingness to be 
governed, and their ina- 
bility to govern themselves 
— their love of change, 
their love of order, and of 
turning things topsy-turvy 
— their disposition to go to extremes, their ability to become 
more cruel and more infernally wicked in every respect in 
the degree that they are capable of being better, than those 
who are bona fide and unequivocally men. 

There is the fable of the frog that endeavored to swell him- 
self to the dimensions of an ox that stood cooling himself in 
the water. The ox, for aught we know, may have been a 
huge island, and the frog may have considered that the 
water was all his own, and that the ox had no business there. 
There is certainly a great degree of similarity and contradic- 
tion between John Bull and his fashionable neighbor the Bull- 
Frog! 

" M. Thiers asserts that there can be no dispute as to the 
high position France holds, especially in her silk manufac- 
tures (at the 'World's Fair,' in London). He was struck 
with the fact that France is pre eminent in all the articles of 




THE FROG. 235 

luxury, which none but the wealthiest can buy ; whereas, Eng 
land excels in the productions usually consumed by the mid 
die and poorer classes. Thus democratic France works for 
the rich, and aristocratic England works for the poor." 

"We see, therefore, that in the case of the frog and the ox 
there was no occasion for any jealousy on the part of the for- 
mer, nor for any contempt on the part of the latter, but that 
they were well suited to each other, and that it was fortunate 
they were near neighbors. The ambition of the frog to swell 
to the dimensions of the ox was no vain ambition, for the 
works of art that contribute to the gratification of taste and to 
spiritual elevation are equal to those more substantial produc- 
tions that contribute to the necessities of the body. It is 
beautiful that aristocracy and democracy should be friends; 
that they should help each other; that the frog should not 
swell himself so much for his own gratification as for that of 
the ox; and that the ox should not draw so much for his own 
benefit as for that of the frog. 

As the Frenchman is lacking in manliness, it is right and 
proper that the French-woman should possess it, and that the 
feminine quality that she is deprived of to make room for the 
manliness, should belong to him. It is as easily seen that the 
Frenchwomen are uncommonly masculine as that the men 
are feminine. There is more true heroism in the characters 
of Joan of Arc and Charlotte Corday than in all the men of 
France that have ever lived. Madame Roland would have 
governed France more wisely and more nobly than that coun- 
try was ever governed : but it so happens that in countries 
where women have none of the qualities of statesmen they 
are made queens, and where they are possessed of these quali- 
ties they are made to stand aside and give place to tyrants. 
The Frenchwoman presented on the following page should 
be contrasted with the Frenchman preceding: in dress and 
everything she is less feminine than he; she has very much 
the appearance of the cow, because of the relation between 
the English and the French, and yet she is thoroughly French, 
and has a strong resemblance to the frog. 

The outer integument of the Frenchman has a wonderful 



236 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




tendency to be puffed out : pads, bustles, balloons, and airv 
nothings, show the nature of the aspirations by which he 

expects to make his greatness 
equal to his desires. What it 
is that his soul lives on, aside 
from the breath of popular ap- 
plause, it would be difficult to 
tell : it is as great a mystery 
as the life of a frog, that seems 
to live on air. Ambition is the 
ruling passion of the French- 
man ; he spreads his sails, and 
fills them with his own breath, 
for he can rarify small praise 
into an immense volume, and 
it is his business to rarify and 
refine. Like the frogs in a pond, each one endeavors to be 
heard above the rest, though the bull-frog orator is loudest of 
them all. Yet it is remarkable that when one strikes a note 
the others join him, to the end that they may be heard to sing 
in concert by the outside listeners. 

But as everything which is not loved for its own sake soon 
begets weariness and disgust, change is earnestly demanded : 
revolution must come, though it overthrow what is worthy of 
being loved and cherished ; and ere long the new fashion will 
become old, and the old will become new again; and thus 
one change will follow another interminably, as whim or ca- 
price may dictate, showing that stability is not the thing 
desired or sought after. The Frenchman says, as an excuse 
for plunging into a revolution, that he wishes disturbances to 
be over, that he may " attend to his business ;" and there is 
truth in this, for he wishes one commotion to pass, that he 
may enjoy another : his very life is commotion. 

But frogs are a happy people, and so are the French when 
the men they choose for rulers resemble frogs, and not alliga- 
tors. Marat and Robespierre resembled vultures ; but others, 
more common and less cruel and cowardly than they, resem- 
ble lizards, animals that rule by the power of the tail, as was 



THE FROG. 



237 



described in the chapter concerning the rhinoceros. In the 
face of Louis XYI., here represented on the right, there is a 
very strong resemblance to 
the frog, and everything that 
is moral and much that is 





noble to confide in, with nothing to distrust; but in the like- 
ness to the left, that carries an impression of a relationship 
to the crocodile, there is something forbidding and formida- 
ble, which a man should give heed to. Look at the eye and 
jaws of that crocodile, counterpoised by a tail that may at 




any moment take upon itself the functions of the other ex- 
tremity ; and look at those feet that are formed to go back- 
ward or forward, according as the supreme power shall be 



23S COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

transferred to one extremity or the other — and say if there is 
anything in the physiognomy of that animal that you could 
confide in? 

The intellect of the Frenchman is in keeping with his dis- 
position and with the activity of his bodily organs, and is a 
further proof of his resemblance to the frog. He "jumps at 
conclusions," and this requires that he should have a wonder- 
ful degree of instinctiveness, or an intuitive perception of 
things. He does not reason, for reason requires prudence, 
deliberation, and proceeds step by step; whereas, instinct 
never delays, or makes a false step, or puzzles its brain about 
anything. The Frenchman is most truly himself, most pros- 
perous, most happy, when he trusts entirely to Nature; but 
when he attempts to reason, he is sure to go wrong. In giv- 
ing the frog an instinct to "jump at conclusions," Nature has 
provided a yielding element for him to fall into, lest he should 
break his bones ; and this provision is all the more important, 
inasmuch as the frog has but a very general idea of where 
he is going to leap to, and when he makes a plunge it is a 
" leap in the dark." There is the same beneficent provision 
for the Frenchman in all that concerns his interests. When 
he jumps at conclusions it is at the practical, and the practi- 
cal is always susceptible of modification and change ; like 
water, into which the frog plunges himself, it accommodates 
itself to the individual; and it is in this that the French- 
man's passion for alteration and variety is intended to receive 
its full gratification. But when the conclusion that the 
Frenchman jumps at is theory — when he aims at first prin 
ciples — when he endeavors to trace effects to causes — it ij 
a leap in the dark still, but it is not into the water, but against 
a rock, and he knocks his brains out! It is the nature of his 
mind to go from mind to matter, from causes to effects, from 
God to the material universe ; and therefore if he takes upon 
himself to go contrary to this, he says that Nature is God, 
that effects are causes, that the soul is from the body, and that 
principles are the results of experiments, and have no exist- 
ence, no eternity, no authority, except as men may choose to 
establish them for their own convenience. Thus the French- 



THE FROG. 239 

man's siirple faith, which is the practice of truth, or a life ot 
charity and good works (the very strongest expression of con- 
fidence in the principles by which these are prompted), ia 
wrecked, and he resembles a toad with a tail, an alligator, or 
an animal in which the distinction between before and behind, 
forward and backward, is not easily determined. When the 
Frenchman reasons a priori, it is instinctive, and he reaches 
the conclusion, though he jumps at it ; but when he reasons 
a posteriori, he reasons a priori still, and mistakes this for 
that: the rock on which he splits is Nature in place of God. 

The instinctiveness which is so remarkable in the French- 
man implies exceeding confidence in the intuitions of his own 
mind, and in the dictates of Nature. This is more beautifully 
illustrated in Montaigne than in any other writer that we 
know of. But the French philosophers in general have suf- 
fered a serious perversion by following with the rest of the 
world in the path of Bacon ; or rather, in thinking that they 
are doing so, when they are in reality going in the very op- 
posite direction. They have too little independence to be 
faithful to their own instincts and to the principle of Descartes 
— too little not to adopt the inductive method of investigation, 
when it is the fashion of the age to do so. The Baconian 
Frenchman, when he thinks of reasoning, starts (as everybody 
else does) from the basis of his own mind, and thus acknowl- 
edges its superiority over the mere facts of science ; but, what 
is strange, after acknowledging this, he goes to matter for the 
cause of the mental phenomena which he exhibits in the in- 
vestigation. He is no more required to investigate causes 
than a frog is required to go backward ; and he no more 
needs a knowledge of them, further than flows into him by 
intuition, than a toad needs a tail ! 

It is a law that an animal should correspond to the element 
he lives in. Land is stationary : animals that live upon it 
can maintain a permanent position, and it is nothing strange 
for them to go backward. Water and air are progressive; 
animals that live in them are in constant motion ; and for the 
locomotive powers of a fish or a bird to carry him in any 
other direction than forward is a very strange thing indeed. 



24:0 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMT. 

The animal that lives in water or air, and seldom touches 
land, must u go ahead," and it is his instinct to do so; there 
fore if in any case he turns tail foremost and goes backward, 
he is guilty of the grossest absurdity and violation of Nature's 
laws, and when we look at him we see that lie is a monster, 
destitute of symmetry and proportion, with forms and shapes 
that indicate dispositions unworthy even of an animal — traits 
unearthly and infernal. Thus it is with the lobster, an animal 
more hideous than any that lives on land ; and thus it is with 
the serpent, the alligator, &c, though less than with the for- 
mer, because, as they live partly on land, they are not capable 
of so great perversion. 

"But what is the application of this to the Frenchman?" 
For the person who resembles a frog to go backward, is to 
change into the nearest resemblance to that animal that can 
be found among animals of the retrograde variety. Of the 
French infidels and atheists, some resemble the Surinam frog 
(a frog with a tail), some the cameleon, some the lizard, some 
the alligator; and the greatest of them all (if Voltaire be the 
greatest) resembles a lobster, as may be seen in the expression 
of the eyes, and, though less, in the scenery of the face. The 
Frenchman being instinctive and by nature practical, lives in 
the external, in the sensual, in the material and the gross, and 
considers that if there be any evidence besides the " evidence 
of the senses," there is at least none equal to it. But the mere 
objects of sense are filthy, for the simple reason that matter 
is essentially dirt, and that it is only the supremacy of the 
spiritual (in which beauty resides) that can make it pure. 
The sole reason why a flower is not dirt as much as the soil 
from which it grew is, that it signifies a spiritual beauty, of 
one kind or another — love, friendship, or some pure senti- 
ment; and unless an individual perceives this, his observation 
of a flower as an object of sense is on a par with his observa- 
tion of soil, of a bug, of a worm, of a snake, or any vile thing 
on the face of the earth. It is no affectation in the French- 
man to lay the stress that he does upon the "evidence of the 
senses," for he sees as much beauty in the vilest reptiles as in 
the most delightful birds; nay, he takes most pains in exam- 



THE FROG. 241 

Jning, painting and describing the former : and the most 
loathsome swellings and diseases do not disgust him, but on 
the contrary he delights in examining, representing, and de- 
scribing them, and invents extraordinary methods of perpetu- 
ating and holding them up to the admiration and wonder of 
the world. He exhibits this character of grossness and sen- 
suality in paintings, and in every variety of art, to a greater 
degree than any other nation. He is full of " unclean spirits, 
like frogs," that were seen in the Revelation "coming up out 
of the bottomless pit." Here is one of them (a Frenchman 
in caricature), and the man who is 
composed of frogs like this must be 
an illustration of the principle that 
"the whole is like the parts that 
compose it." The frog lias those 
things about him that the French- 
man admires : warts, bearing a like- 
ness to buboes, blotches, and chan 
cres; besides puffings and swellings, 
having the appearance of tumidities 

from disease or from excessive grossness. Also the critical 
acumen in reference to sensual objects, and the taste for nat- 
ural history, manifested by the Frenchman, are exhibited by 
the frog (and usefully too), in clearing the garden of grubs 
and bugs, and leaving the more beautiful things comparatively 
untouched. But as bad as it is to be sensual, and to bear too 
literal a resemblance to the frog, it is worse to attempt to .rea- 
son, or to go backward, when the idea in the mind is that the 
objects of sense are essential, primary, superior, the most im- 
portant, an'] therefore the causes of all things. Was there 
ever anything so stupid as that shrug of the shoulders, and 
that leaden gaze, and that motion toward a twigging of the 
nose, which is exhibited by the Frenchman when he is called 
upon to know anything or to believe anything beyond the 
evidence of his senses ? Yes : the frog preceding is very like 
him and quite equal to him in that; and he is himself ten 
times more stupid and insensible when he puts " the cart be- 
fore the horse," the "effect before the cause," and declares 

16 




COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



solemnly that reason has an office to perform, and that by 
means of it he knows something that he did not know before, 
viz., that the horse is pulled along by the cart, and that what 
people have supposed to be the effect is in reality the cause ! 
He resembles the alligator, and the alligator is a stupider ani- 
mal than the frog, and far more unfeeling 
and infernal. The frog in him took leave 
of absence for a while, in order that he 
might seek out fitting companions, and 
when he returned he brought such things 
as lizards and lobsters with him to share 
in the government of the domain. Thus 
is illustrated the saying: "When the un- 
clean spirit has gone out from a man, he walketh through dry 
places, seeking rest and finding none. Then he saith, 4 1 will 
return to the place from which I went out;' and when he has 
returned he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then 
he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits worse than 
himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state 
of that man is worse than the first." 





ggr^. 



THE FKOG. 243 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The expression u mercurial Frenchman" is a familiar one. 
A metal moving about like water, instead of being crystal- 
lized and having a base to stand upon, is no exaggeration of 
the extraordinary mobility of the people referred to. Attempt- 
ing to lay your hand on a globule of mercury is like attempt- 
ing to lay your hand on a frog — you light on emptiness ; and 
in like manner you can never get the better of a Frenchman 
in an argument, for he occupies no place in particular, and 
you can not calculate where he will jump to. It is a general 
rule, however, that the frog will jump into the water, as the 
deepest and most important element; and in like manner 
the Frenchman will jump to scientific facts, as the deepest 
and most important truths. As these are pliable, and he can 
make them what he pleases, it is impossible that you should 
trace him, except b t y the mud which he stirs up from the bot- 
tom, which soon obscures him entirely ! Supposing even that 
you have him in the field where the rules of rhetoric are laid 
down, you lay hands on vacuity when you think he will stay 
still. This is not his fault, but yours; but if he takes to his 
scientific facts, and from these reasons against reason, assu- 
ring you that these are the central truths and the causes of 
all others, argument is at an end. As the frog goes to its 
natural element, so goes he to his own place, as the safest 
for hi?n. Like an infant in the posture that is best suited 
to his condition, he regards only the objects of the senses. 
The ipse dixit of Science, from which he is begotten, puts an 
end to all dispute. The umpire in this case, who appears in 
the form of a bull-frog, swells about the throat till head and 
shoulders are mingled into one, and he appears like a monster 
with eyes in the upper part of the chest ; and all in the en- 



244 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



deavor to utter a croak that shall be deeper and more oracu- 
lar than any which preceded it. However much you desire 
to get a sight at him, you are doomed to disappointment, for 
he has sagacity enough to know that the expectation that is 
aroused by a voice like that would never be realized. 

To mention all the varieties of Frenchmen in connection 
with the varieties of the frog would be an endless underta- 
king. There are frogs of a sanguinary disposition (constitu- 
ting the entire population of a pond of which the water is out), 
that muster into a regular army, the master-spirit of which :s 
a frog of wonderful ambition and reckless of blood. Two 
armies of this description meeting each other leave thousands 
of their number dead on the ensanguined field. Compare 
the leader of a noisy army of frogs with the picture called 
Bonaparte, and with others that might be mentioned. Then 
there are dirty frogs, that live in mire, and know not the use 
of water, but are covered with spawn and 
slime ; and to match these there is a class 
of Parisians that excel in filthiness. Then 
there are clean frogs, beautifully colored 
and speckled, that do not even injure the 
spring-water that they live in — frogs that 
you really love to take in your hand wheth 
er you be Frenchman or not ; and the like 
of these make Paris a cleaner city than any 
other in the world. Then there are frogs 
with yellow skins and beautiful golden eyes, 
that hop about in the sand, true to their in- 
stinct which requires them to live in an ele- 
ment that is shifting; and these are they 
who talk of stability in the government, and 
build their houses upon the sand. Then there 
are toads " ugly and venomous," that " live upon the vapor 
of a dungeon," by which their brains are rendered prolific — 
toads who never change their habits, and who are therefore 
unmitigatingly disgusting in both dress and manners; and to 
go with these there are Frenchmen who disfranchise them- 
selves, who are not reckoned among frogs, but are alternately 




THE FROG. 



245 



sent to the galleys, banished, or imprisoned. Then there are 
tree toads, who take the hue of the times in which they live, 
and who are more elevated in feelings and sentiments than 
the frogs who surround them, and who redeem the character 
of Jthe toad, and offer encouragement and example to the low- 
liest and the most degraded. Were it not for the Frenchmen 
whose voices make such sweet melody as these, in contrast 
with the chattering and croaking of the remainder, the mul- 
titude of frogs would sink in the depths of sensualism, to rise 
no more. Then there are frogs that we skipped in their 
proper places, such as put their heads together above the sur- 
face of the water, entangled with spawn and sea -weeds — 




bandits that disappear on the appearance of a spectator the 
moment he can say " Jack !" 

The talent for caricature, for which the French are distin- 
guished, has its origin in the love of exaggeration before spo- 
ken of. As it is contagious, we plead guilty to the same 
offence. The French know how to take these things ; and 
besides, as a general rule, it is a sufficient compliment to rep- 
resent a man as he really is. A man is in general what he 
chooses to be; and hence the danger of offence is in descri- 
bing him as he is not. The French love to have their quali- 
ties exaggerated, and therefore it is that they deal in compli- 
ments as well as in caricature. They have little inclination 



24:6 COMPARATIVE 1 iJYSIOGNOMY. 

to be dissatisfied with what is said of them ; for when they 
are "blown" the*y are ready for blows, and a blow from a 
stone does them no more harm than a blow of wind. For the 
same reason, when a Frenchman is able to dress himself as 
he chooses, he can pass for whatever he likes : — 

<k Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; 
Robes and furred gowns hide all !" 

With such a tournure as he alone has the art of producing, 
he does not ask even the mantle of charity to be thrown over 
him. He is fond of wit, and a good joke is never at his ex- 
pense, for he has more instinct and less sensibility than others. 
He plays with heads as a child with a rocket, and a revolu- 
tion is genuine sport — to all but those who say, like the 
frogs in the fable, " It may be sport to you, but it is death 
to us !" 

Apropos of this, the French being remarkably like chil- 
dren, and having a great deal of instinct as animals have, are 
wonderfully fond of fables; and there is a fable which relates 
that once upon a time the frogs became wearied of their mo- 
notonous existence, and prayed to Jupiter to send them a 
king; whereupon the god sent them a log, which killed manj 
as it fell among them, and made such a splashing that the 
rest were awed into stillness; until, finding that it had no 
longer any power of doing them harm, they became impa- 
tient — abused, insulted, and leaped upon it, and accused 
Jupiter of sending them a thing, and at the same time de- 
manded of him with deafening clamor that he should send 
them a king that was animated, like themselves, only a great 
deal more so; whereupon Jupiter sent them a stork, that be- 
gan immediately to devour them with an appetite that threat- 
ened to exterminate the race. This is the sum and substance 
of the fable, and it is particularly applicable to the people 
who resemble frogs, as much so as if it had been written to 
describe them. iEsop must have been inspired to have proph- 
esied so correctly, and to have understood the character of the 
frog so well. The log will do very well to represent the rule 
of those Frenchmen who, after the distinction necessary to a 



THE FROG. 



247 



revolution, allow the people to do as they please. The stork 
will represent the rule of one who absorbs into himself the 
will and functions of the 
people, and interprets them 
as he sees fit. The former 
is like a log, because the 
Frenchmen who are par- 
ticularly concerned in it 
are of the variety that re- 
semble alligators, the most 
refined and elevated of 
whom have the character 
of camel eons ; and the lat- 
ter is like a stork, because 
the person who exercises 
it resembles that bird : like 
the crow, vulture, and oth- 
er carrion-birds, the stork 
is cowardly ; but he has a show of courage ; he is not boldly 
but cunningly revengeful. His faults are primarily his fond- 
ness for carrion and for every species of filth and nuisance, 





his cowardice, also his love of snakes and reptiles — for though 
these are regarded as high virtues in the bird, as making him 
an excellent scavenger, and the receptacle of things so vile 



248 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



that even the vilest of human beings reject them, yet they are 
the foundation of the most despicable traits in a human being. 
The lazy and vicious are very fond of whatever relieves them 
from the trouble of labor and cleanliness; and this is the rea- 
son why the stork is held in such high esteem in Egypt, Hol- 
land, and many other countries, and why the Mohammedans 
even venerate him. As he is fond of frogs, it is but right and 
proper that frogs should be fond of him, particularly when 
they add to the cause of their liking him his disposition to 
relieve them of all trouble of governing and disposing of them- 
selves. His fondness for frogs may be shown in this: " Bel- 
lonius informs us that storks visit Egypt in such abundance, 
that the fields and meadows are white with them, and that 
the natives are pleased with their arrival, as the birds deliver 
them from innumerable swarms of frogs, and also devour ser- 
pents." The " grave air and mournful visage" of the stork 
constitute one of the resemblances to the person of whom the 
following is a portrait (Louis Napoleon). The Marabou stork 

is the bird w T e have chosen 
to stand by his side. For 
a description we quote from 
a writer on natural history : 
" In its habits this bird 
bears a close resemblance 
to the white stork of Europe, 





out becomes still more familiar, and, in consequence of its 
larger size, renders more essential service in the removal of 
carrion, offal, and other nuisances. This important office 



THE FROG. 24b> 

like the adjutants of Calcutta, it shares with the vultures ; 
and both birds are universally privileged from all annoyance, 
in return for so meritorious exertion of their natural propensi- 
ties. They seem to be constantly attracted by heaps of offen- 
sive substances collected in the villages and towns, which 
they devour without scruple, and in immense quantities. . . . 
Nothing seems to come amiss to the voracious appetite [of 
this stork] ; for when carrion is scarce, it attacks reptilee,, 
small birds, and even the lesser quadrupeds (as mice), which 
it usually swallows entire." From this it appears that no 
very great danger is to be apprehended from such birds, ex- 
cept by frogs, and animals that are more weak and cowardly 
than themselves. " When excited, they elongate their necks, 
and stand at their full height, menacing with their large bills, 
which are, however, too light to inflict any serious injury, 
even had the birds courage enough to attempt it." 

Having spoken hastily of King Stork, we will give a brief 
description of King Log. There are certain frogs whose 
greatness appears in the grating of their voices. As it is not 
natural for instinct to reason, these, by setting themselves up 
to be reasoners, and by reasoning backward when it is their 
instinct to go forward, degenerate into lizards of the larger 
variety — large, because it is their ambition to be so, as indi- 
cated by their voice, and by their habits of swelling and ex- 
pansion. 

Opposite to these there are tree-toads, with fine, soft, musi- 
cal voices, and with a disposition to shrink into the substance 
of the tree that they are perched upon, at the same time that 
they desire eminence — as much, even, as the frogs last men- 
tioned desire a grovelling situation, and to be distinguished. 
The Frenchmen who resemble tree-toads, by adopting induc- 
tion as the rule of reasoning, degenerate into a resemblance 
to the cameleon, the most harmless and beautiful of lizards, 
as the tree-toad is the most harmless and beautiful of toads. 
Who can look at the following portrait of a Frenchman, and 
not say that it is a genuine " character," a distinct genm, 
drawn to the life? Would you not know by those feet and 
hands that he hp ^ wonderful powers of clinging to whatever 



250 



COMPARATIVE PH\ &i\j<*NOMY. 



ie takes hold of? That right arm has the peculiar thrust 
that is observed in the right fore-leg of the cameleon, and it 

is evidently grasping the con- 
tents of his pocket. That left 
arm has the very same char- 
acter that is observed in the 
corresponding member of the 
quadruped. That left leg — 
how admirably it imitates the 
left that sets itself down on 
the limb of the tree! and the 
right, how like in character 
to the one that forms the ba- 
sis of support, and insures 
safety to the cameleon ! and 
even the coat-tail adds ama- 
zingly to the resemblance, in 
• the manner of its descent from 





the back, in its length, and in the support which it adds to 
the posterior aspect of the right extremity. But when we 
ascend to the head, the likeness is no less remarkable, and 
still more interesting. In the peculiar angle and curve of 
that forelock the individual has embodied some striking trait 
of his character — an endeavor, it may be, to resemble the 
cameleon in the artistic disposal of everything belonging to 
him. The top and back part of his head, together with the 
forelock, turning up on one side and down on the other, are 
imaged forth in corresponding points in the head of the came- 
leon. The nose, too, has the very curve, and the very expressioD 



THE FROG. 251 

of stubbedness of disposition, together with tne love ot emi- 
nence and accommodation, in the proportions, that are rudely 
set forth in the nasal organ of the inferior animal. And that 
eye, was there ever any like it save in the cameleon ? Does it, 
not seem as if it would look this way while the left eye looked 
the other ? and as if it would look upward while the left regard- 
ed the earth ? Precisely so ; and in this he bears as close a 
resemblance to the cameleon as in other things. It is well 
known that the cameleon has the power of moving the eyes 
in opposite directions, up and down, and toward all points of 
the compass, just as if he were two animals instead of one. 
Descending from the head to the chest, we see in the form, 
of the latter, in the whole length of the vest, in the swelled 
and in the girted portion, and from the top to the groin, the 
evidences of a disposition in this particular Frenchman to 
borrow his fashions from this favorite pattern of the qualities 
of mind and heart that he is inclined to cultivate. There can 
be no doubt of his abilities and disposition to change his col- 
ors to suit the times and circumstances, to blend in with that 
which most predominates, and to turn that coat of his as often 
as the exigencies of the case may require ; and of course this 
implies the ability, if not really the disposition, to bear a 
scolding tongue, and not merely to survive under it, but to 
take it good-naturedly, and to thrive and prosper, and to 
speak a good word to the neighbors in favor of his amiable 
spouse. 

The moral qualities are swerved from their proper and le- 
gitimate action by the influence of the animal faculties when 
the latter predominate, as was shown in the peculiar action 
of justice consequent upon the bovine qualities of those who 
resemble the ox. " Pulling and hauling" is the sum of pro- 
ceedings in the English courts, and oxwhips are applied lust- 
ily, accompanied with shouts, in which " gee" and " haw" 
are the conspicuous words, equivalent to pro and con / and 
it is curious that oxen, like John Bulls, are directed to pull 
to the right and to the left at the same time, as is evident 
from the repeated command, " Gee haw !" Hodge is quite 
certain of being obeyed when he utters such an order as this, 



252 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

and he delights in the increased labors of his oxen in their 
endeavor to pull away from each other, for they are " perform- 
ing an immense amount of labor" — the grand thing which 
he proposes to accomplish. In respect to justice, John Bull 
and Monsieur Frog are the very antipodes of each other. Nat- 
ural historians inform us that the ranunculi have a singular 
mode of administering capital punishment. Two stout fellows 
place themselves on each side of the offender, and crowd up- 
on him until they have crushed him to death. In like man- 
ner, French justice places the accused between two parties ; 
and these, instead of inclining to separation, are disposed to 
agreement : both parties conspire to condemn, and agree to 
" go halves" in the division of the spoils ! If a king or a 
deputy is so unfortunate as to come to trial, the people rush 
upon him en masse / there are none to defend him, and his 
death is the explosion that scatters them in wild disorder, to 
concentrate again at the Tuileries, or some other place, where 
they revenge the death of their former victim upon their 
leader. They are essentially democratic only on this princi- 
ple, that " where the carcass is there the eagles are gathered 
together." We have seen it suggested that the eagle which 
the French republic displays aloft is a Gallic bird, and may 
be nothing more nor less than a gallinaceous fowl. 



THE DOG. 



253 



CHAPTER XXXI 



We Lave lingered on the verge of one part of our subject, 
longing for the eloquence which it would seem calculated to 
inspire, and find that we are likely never to go on unless we 
content us with plain English, like that which has already 
served us. That subject is the resemblance between the Irish- 
man and the dog; and the eloquence which we craved (with- 
out knowing exactly what we were 
waiting for) is " Irish eloquence." 
This is so prominent a trait of Irish 
character, that if the resemblance 





alluded to exists, it must be characteristic of the dog. And 
so it is. Listen how the loud sound of the watch-dog booms 
through the air at night, and how the welkin rings with re- 
sponses from 

"mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, 

And curs of low degree,"' 

in imitation of guns, thunder, and the rolling eloquence called 
oratory ! On all sides round echoes the " war of words, 1 ' in 
which accent and emphasis play the conspicuous part, the 
sounds being jerked forth like the report of a rifle ; and the 



254: COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

merest squib of them all is as ambitious of being the "big 
gun" as the one that may justly lay claim to that distinction. 
Is not this a description of Irish eloquence? Has not the 
Irishman pathos also to express his bereavement? and does 
he not hold his "wakes," in which he rivals the dog in wail- 
ing, as at other times he rivals him in debate and oratory? 
He seems to howl and bay the moon, as if the wavering stars 
would shed more tears, and the chaste Diana, the patroness 
of thieves and vagabonds, would be melted with sympathy at 
the tale of his sufferings : not to say that the Irishman is a 
thief and a vagabond, in a worse sense than that he is exact- 
ing, and that he gives himself up " to license unrestrained," 
and with a feeling of abandonment to be the prey of pick- 
pockets, grief, beggary, and intemperance. We speak now 
of the "common run" of Irish, and they are like the "com- 
mon run" of dogs that " take after them," and that are thieves 
and vagabonds without qualification. 

The Irish, take them as they come over, are remarkable 
for holding you by the button while they inflict upon you 
what they have to say, or (if they are so fortunate as to be 
merchants) what they have to sell ; and they are distinguished 
for pertinacity in begging, or in "beating down;" and, cer- 
tainly, if they are so elevated as to be purchasers instead of 
beggars, they have a right to be impudent, though it is some- 
what difficult to distinguish buying (as they practise it) from 
begging! The Irishman's mouth waters for everything he 
eees, and he is the " greatest tease," in every sense of the 
term, of anybody we know of, with the exception of the dog, 
who, it must be expected, will follow the fortunes of his mas- 
ter. " Like master like man" is a trite saying, and as true as 
it is trite. Compare the Irishman and the dog in respect to 
barking, snarling, howling, begging, fawning, flattering, back- 
biting, quarrelling, blustering, scenting, seizing, hanging on, 
teasing, rollicking, and whatever other traits you may discover 
in either, and you will be convinced that there is a wonderful 
resemblance. 

The son of old Erin wastes his breath in sighing for the 
past, and fails in his efforts for the future because he has no 



THE DOG. 255 

heart in it. He has ardent wishes, but it is for the old, for 
everything hallowed by the tender associations of bygote 
days. Yet these refer to some wished for good in the future. 
What he hopes and anticipates is, the return of the good old 
times of learning and hospitality, of domestic affection and 
neighborly love, which characterized his ancestors. Noble 
traits were these, and it is the deep consciousness of the same 
affections in his bosom still that links him to the past with a 
tie that bleeds and suffers with everything in the present and 
the future that essays to rend it. 

In our opinion, we have alluded to the finest trait in the 
Irish character — a susceptibility to an exquisiteness of pleas- 
ure or of pain, which comes from an extraordinary degree of 
consciousness. The cords of affection in his breast are en- 
dowed with the highest degree of sensibility, and for the rea- 
son that they do not utter themselves but in tones of the must 
thrilling pathos, and therefore it is too that they refuse to oe 
broken. They attach him to the past, to the objects of his 
first love, and the necessity of change rends his heart. But 
there is a way in which he can submit to the operation of 
having the ties which bind him to his kindred and country 
rent asunder, and his heart taken from him as if it were a 
fungous excrescence — and that is, to be made drunk. Alas 
that he should have fallen into the sad necessity of being 
made insensible, that he might suffer himself to be torn from 
all that his heart holds dear — from wife, and children, and 
home, and the relics of his ancestors ! What is left of the 
Irishman when you take from him his household gods, and 
his tender susceptibility of pleasure and pain? He is a mis- 
erable imitation of the Frenchman (see next page), both in 
the frivolity and hilarity which are the first effects of intoxi- 
cation, and in the loss of sensibility, and the sundering of 
domestic ties, and the recklessness of old associations and of 
the feelings of others, which are the inevitable result of his 
potations repeated and persevered in. He becomes a fatalist 
as much worse than the Frenchman as madness is worse than 
folly, as whiskey is worse than wine, and as insensibility that 
is induced is worse than that which is natural. He prates 



256 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



and babbles, and is full of the ambition of being an orator, 
and is in every respect as miserable a caricature of the French- 
man as the perverted American is a miserable representation 




of a Chinaman, and as the degenerate Italian is a miserable 
impersonation of the Englishman. It will not do for the Irish 
to resemble frogs, nor for dogs to resemble Frenchmen. The 




consciousness of the Irishman adapts him to domestic life, to 
which the dog is suited ; and the Distinctiveness of the French- 
man adapts him to communism, like that of the frog, or those 
wonderful examples of instinct the bee and the ant: and an 
attempt to reverse the order of things is destructive to both. 
France is a bad atmosphere for the Irishman ; and let the 
man who resembles the dog, or is a descendant of the Irish, 



THE DOG. 



257 



not be ambitious to " learn French." If you find him so, you 
will also find him snappish, ambitious of being a politician, 
and of distinguishing himself as an orator; and in default of 
these he will be for ever applying the "lash of scorpions" to 
his nearest neighbor. 

" Close at my heels the snappish cur 
With yelping treble flies" — 

will be applicable to him. French dogs are the least amiable 
of their species, if we may judge from what Dickens says of 
them: .... "And here are sheep-dogs, sensible as ever, but 
witli a certain French air about them, not without a suspicion 
of dominoes, with a kind of flavor of mustache and beard ; 
demonstrative dogs, shaggy and loose where an English dog 
would be tight and close ; not so troubled with business cal- 
culations as our English drovers' dogs, who have always got 
their sheep on their 
minds, and think of 
their wgrk, even rest- 
ing, as you may see 
by their faces — but 
dashing, showy, ra- 
ther unreliable dogs, 
who might worry me 
instead of their legit- 
imate charges if they 
saw occasion — and 
might see it some- 
what suddenly." The genuine Irishman — the one who is 

worthy a birthplace on the 
Emerald isle — resembles that 
noblest of all dogs, the Irish 
wolf-dog, and more the dog 
of St. Bernard and the New- 
foundland dog than the scav- 
enger-dog of the city and the 
great variety of whining,bark- 
ing, howling, snarling, snap- 
17 





258 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

ping dogs that, like Irishmen, are scattered the world over. 
The man who in feature and expression resembles those no- 
bler animals just mentioned, is more seen than heard ; he has 
feelings too deep for utterance ; he is linked to the past by 
the tenderest associations; his love is pure, concentrated, of 
the strongest kind, and therefore eternal, looking to the future 
for the consummation of what is already begun. He is the 
very opposite of the Frenchman, and the farthest remove pos- 
sible from the vacillating, tyrannical, cruel, faithless, hypo- 
critical, beslavering Irishman, who illustrates the saying of 
Pope : — 

" Of all mad creatures, if the learned are right, 
It is the slaver kills, and not the bite !" 

Those nobler Irishmen are found at home, for their hearts are 
there; and if they are compelled to leave their country (not 
" for their country's good," as certain Englishmen are who 
are sent to Botany bay), you hear them use the word " home" 
as synonymous with their country, when they refer to the 
land that gave them birth ; that is marked everywhere by the 
hallowed shrines and footprints of their ancestors. They have 
true eloquence, the very opposite of that haranguing, brawl- 
ing, litigating, campaigning, brazen eloquence of the "com- 
mon Irish," who, in reversing their original character, outdo 
the peculiarities of the French. Their words are the language 
of genuine feeling, but they are generally silent, for the love 
that burns in their bosoms is a holy flame. Their eloquence 
is the very essence of harmony and pathos, and every word 
they utter may be treasured as an embodiment of love, a sacred 
memento of the heart from which it came. 

Thackeray, in his " Irish Sketch-Book, " speaks thus of Irish 
gentlemen: "I have met more gentlemen here than in any 
other place I ever saw — gentlemen of high and low ranks, 
that is to say — men shrewd and delicate of perception, ob- 
servant of society, entering into the feelings of others, and 
anxious to set them at ease or to gratify them." This is in 
consequence of the exquisite susceptibility which we call con- 
sciousness, but when he adds, " of course exaggerating their 
professions of kindness, and in so far insincere," we beh^d 



THE DOG. 



259 



the tendency toward " puppyism," or a resemblance to those 
dogs that fawn, first upon their masters and finally upon ev- 
erybody, especially upon those from whom they hope to 
receive favors ; and in the last stage of all they become 
"toadies." 

The same writer says : " In regard to the Munster ladies, 
I had the pleasure to be present at two or three evening par- 
ties at Cork, and must say that they seem to excel English 
ladies, not only in wit and vivacity, but in the still more im- 
portant article of the toilet. They are as well dressed as 

Frenchwomen, and incomparably handsomer In the 

carriages, among the ladies of Kerry, every second woman 
was handsome ; and there is something peculiarly tender and 
pleasing in the looks of the young female peasantry, that is 

perhaps even better than beauty The hair flowing loose 

and long is a pretty characteristic of the women of the coun- 
try ; many a fair one do you see at the door of the cabin, 
combing complacently 'that greatest ornament of female 
beauty.' .... I never saw in any country such general grace 
of manner and ladyhood." 

"Were we to choose the animal 
that would most resemble this 
description, we would choose the 
most beautiful in the world, and 
that would be the King Charles 
spaniel (see next page). The still 
consciousness ; the deep feeling 
and sympathy of those eyes, in 
which there is more eloquence 
than words can utter ; the quiet, 
the gentleness, the grace ; the 
exquisite cultivation and refine- 
ment, of which those very long, 
pendent ears are the tokens ; ev- 
erything about the dear crea- 
ture that speaks of tenderness 
and love, of domestic happiness, of exquisite appreciation and 
sensibility, of sensitiveness to unkind treatment, of forgive- 




360 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




ness, of meekness, of inoffensive innocence, of a disposition to 
live in peace and harmony with all mankind — remind us of 
woman in that refined society that is included within the do- 
mestic circle, and has its origin from domestic virtue. 

Saint Patrick is said to have driven all the toads and snakes 
out of Ireland, and we might add lizards included, for these 
are a medium between the two. But, in expelling them from 
Mie land, he may have caused them to transmigrate, and to 
appear again under the mask of the native inhabitants ! 
" Bloody Irishman" is a term applicable to the Irish in gen- 
eral, but particularly to that variety that resembles the bull- 
dog. " Kill" is a word attached to half the places in Ireland 
— Kildare, Kilkenny, Killarney, Kilkerny, etc. It should be 

remarked, however, that the 
noblest varieties of dogs, of 
which the bull-dog is one, be- 
come by perversion the very 
worst ; and the same is true 
of those persons who resemble 





the nobler varieties of dogs. They are either remarkable for 
their stanch integrity and tenacious adherence to the princi- 



THE DOG. 261 

pies of honor and uprightness, or they are noted foi their 
tenacity of purpose, right or wrong, and in pursuit of their 
victims are like Spanish bloodhounds; or they answer better 
still to the description of Cerberus at the gate of hell. The 
man who resembles the shepherd's dog is by perversion con- 
verted into a resemblance to the wolf. His affection for 
sheep, or in other words for innocence and virtue, is convert- 
ed into the appetite for mutton, or the desire to seduce and 
to devour that which it is his duty to protect. He has in his 
face a look of innocence, like that which he lives upon, but 
which he changes into its opposite. He is the "wolf in 
sheep's clothing." He looks "sheepish," in a sense that can 
hardly be distinguished from "wolfish," and when lie looks 
with admiration upon unstained beauty in the opposite sex 
you can see in him an "evil eye" like that which is discov- 
erable in the wolf, or like that which makes the dog look " as 
if he had been stealing sheep." The dog, if he be worthy of 
the name, is "death" upon the wolf, and this is particularly 
the case with the Irish wolf-dog, who resembles that animal 
as much as he hates him. This is just the difference between 
the genuine coin and the counterfeit: the more the latter is 
like the former, the more vile and worthless it is, and the 
more it is opposite to the true. Hypocrisy is the very oppo- 
site of the goodness which it affects, for it is the perversion 
of truth, which is falsehood, and the perversion of virtue, 
which is vice. But though the wolf-dog and the wolf resem- 
ble each other and resemble the sheep, the one has a mean, 
cruel, cowardly expression of countenance, and the other has 
a magnanimous, mild, courageous expression, that wins your 
confidence. And so it is with the " Shepherd of the sheep" 
and with the " wolf in sheep's clothing." The " sheep," we 
are told, are able to distinguish between one and the other. 

The dog is a very great wit, and exceedingly fond of sport 
and game. He shows his waggish disposition in the manner 
In which he plays with you and with other dogs. He appre- 
ciates the joke you play upon him if it be a good-natured 
one, and surprises you by the disposition he has to reciprocate 
it, and by the tact he displays in making you the subject of 



262 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



laughter. He is alive to fun and frolic — not playfulness 
merely, like that of the cat, but something absolutely droll, 
ridiculous, and absurd. The parallel of this to the disposition 
and talent for which the Irish are most celebrated, is at once 
perceived. The lowest, the most ignorant, the most stupid, 
are not exempt from a peculiar kind of smartness, a certain 
keen perception of the ludicrous, and a readiness in making 
apt replies ; and there is not a dog but has the same appreci- 
ation, and the same facility of expressing it, so far as a dumb 
dog can express his ideas of things. The tolerance with which 
a Newfoundland or a dignified old mastiff regards the gam- 
bols of a puppy, who makes bold to jump into his face and 
pull him by the tail, is not mere forbearance, but is, if we 
may judge anything from his actions and the expressions of 
his countenance, in consequence in no small degree of the 
gratification of his "wit and mirthful ness." 

This talent for wit sharpens the Irishman's slander, as is 
evident from the nature of his satire ; and it is similar with 

the dog, as is shown in 
his worrying and teas- 
ing poor animals instead 




of doing simply what his master bids r ; ,m. It is easy to set 
him on, but hard to call him off, and precisely so it is with 
the " plaguey" Irishman. There is a wonderful tenacity in 
this love of teasing, which is the counterpart of the French- 
man's fondness for caricature; and the poor victim, thinking 
the dog has "the wrong pig by the ear," is fain to cry, 



THE DOG. 



263 



" Bloody murder !" and " Leave go !" The dog, we know, cries 
some time after he is hurt, showing the continuance of the 
pain, but the hog ceases shouting as soon as the dog ceases 
his persecutions. Ergo, the dog, like the Irishman, is a tease 
and a torment. This is a character, in fact, that it seems im- 
possible for the Irishman to get rid of, for when he tries his 
best to please he is still vexatious. "What torments these 
Irish servants are!" is frequently heard from those who have 
not been the subjects of their satire. They are as proverbial 
for their ridiculous mistakes as for their wit, and this is the 
more strange as it seems to be a contradiction in character. 
But it is according to the principle, "They who take the 
sword shall perish by the sword," and the same is true of the 
French. These "Irish bulls," as they are called, are not 
from lack of shrewdness, but from a want of instinctiveness 
the trait that is peculiarly natural to the French ; and it is in 
consequence also of that imperative, headlong, impetuous dis- 
position which the bull-dog has in common with the bull, and 
which the Irish have in common with the English. The lack 
of instinctiveness is shown in the awkwardness of their mo- 
tions. Their imitations of the French, which are mere perver- 
sions of their own characters, increase this opposition and 
render it all the more conspicuous. They are like beetles — 

"Against the traveller borne in heedless hum," 

or like the pumpkin that you can not 
keep out of your way, but are always 





COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

tumbling over, bringing you into the same blundering, awk- 
ward condition with themselves. If the Irishman were not 
distinguished for this, there could be no food for his wit, for 
he could not place you in a ludicrous position in his own 
mind without placing you so externally. This is true of all 
persons who have an extraordinary sense of the ludicrous. It 
is on this principle that the French, who are the fittest sub- 
jects of caricature, are themselves the greatest caricaturists 
in the known world. 

Among dogs, the commonality, which aspire to the condi- 
tion of toads, and to that of frogs in stagnant pools by the 
roadside, love to dig in the dirt, to roll in it, to splash through 
the mud, and esteem it a luxury to have a pig pen, or a snug, 
warm kennel to harbor in. Among the Irish, the common- 
ality take to dirt-digging more naturally than to anything 
else; they are dirty in their persons, and admit their pigs in 
the mud-cabins which they themselves occupy. They are 
good servants if you deal harshly with them, as a master does 
with his dog ; but the moment you are disposed to be famil- 
iar with them they are all over you, jumping against you, and 
laying their dirty paws upon your clean clothes, as if you 
were no better than they. You are loved by them quite as 
well, and they are quite as happy, if you teach them good 
manners : but the true way to restore to them that sensibility, 
delicacy, sense of propriety, tender affection, and exquisite 
susceptibility of enjoyment, which is their rightful inheritance 
from their ancestors, is, to treat them as if they were possessed 
of these qualities, and thereby to set them the example. The 
man who wounds the feelings of his dog, will soon have a dog 
as hard and ungenerous as himself; but the man who ^eats 
his dog as he should, will have a faithful servant, who will 
say, " Go on, master, I will follow thee to the last gasp, w?th 
truth and loyalty." 



THE DOG. 



205 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



" Arrai ! come on, now ! I'm ready for ye!" is as plainly 
expressed in the attitude of this Irishman as in that of the 
dog, and it is perfectly natural to both ; but the attitude indi- 
cates more the posture of affairs in- 
side than is expressed in words: 
there is a provisional clause in the 
defiance, which, if it were written, 
would read thus — " if you are not 
too strong for me !" The cowardly 
disposition exhibited in the manner 
of looking, of standing, and of grasp- 
ing the shelalah, is not to be mista- 





ken ; and it is in the attempt to look and to feel courageous 
that it is most betrayed. If Paddy were not a coward, he 
would not arm himself with a club as a preparation for a suc- 
cessful resistance, much less would he use this cruel instru- 
ment to attack with. Cowardice and cruelty are inseparable, 
and the proof of the one is proof of the other. The cause 
which operates to produce these two traits, as explained in 
the chapter concerning the vulture, is brought to bear power- 
ful) v upon the Irishman, who drinks to drive away the feeling 



2M 



COMT' ARATfV E PfT YPIOG NOMT. 



that he is a coward ; then to screw up Ins courage to the point 
of defending himself ; then to make him pitiless, abusive to 
bis friends, cm el and desperate; then to drive him to mad- 
ness, and to fancy himself rich, generous, and lordly, as he 
has the inclination to be ; then to shnt out the phantoms of 
wretchedness from his sight, and to drown himself in obliv- 
ion ; and finally to struggle feebly against the ghastly messen- 
gers that come to torment him in the hour of dissolution. 

As the dog has a predisposition to be fond of carrion, and 
has a large chest for the exhalation of carbonic acid gas, it 
is natural that the Irishman should have a leaning to ferment 
ed liquor, and that his chest should be large, enabling him to 
dispose of a great quantity of excrementitious gases by exha- 
lation, and thus adapting him to the evil habit he is inclined 
to. Under these circumstances, if the Irishman is temperate, 
it is a rare virtue. His countenance expresses the greatest 
possible degree of sobriety, which betokens a trustworthy 
character, in which is included courage, prudence, honesty, 
faithfulness, integrity, and nobleness. If in this portrait of an 

honest dog there is not some- 
thing sufficiently human to de- 
serve all this, there is at least 
perfect sobriety, and a resem- 
blance to a true-hearted and 
honorable gentleman. Gentle- 





^O-e^-ftL 



N.V 



ness is a virtue ; and the dog, if he be well bred, is a gentle 
man, because he is naturally rude ; while the cat, being nativ 



THE DOG. 267 

rally quiet, can not have the virtue of gentility ascribed to 
her. The least degree of intemperance is a breach of polite- 
ness ; it is synonymous with rudeness ; while sobriety includes 
all those qualities that are ascribed to people of the most pol- 
ished and refined manners. The dog represented on the pre- 
ceding page is a Scotch terrier. You can see in his counte- 
nance undaunted bravery, and a sturdy opposition to all 
sneaking and meanness, to all cruelty and cowardice,, and to 
all seeking after fermented liquors and fermented food — to 
all the traits which are manifested in the rat, and of which 
he has none. He hates the rat, as a thing engendered in 
filth, which he despises, and as possessing traits the very op- 
posite of faithfulness and courage ; and hence he kills the rat, 
but does not eat it; he is intent upon its destruction, but has 
the strongest aversion to devouring it. He is not cruel : he 
does not tease people, nor bark and bite, and worry poor ani- 
mals. He is not cowardly : he is never seen cowering, or 
dodging, or skulking, or sneaking along the gutters, looking 
out for garbage with one eye and for clubs and brickbats with 
the other. He is intent upon reform ; upon cleansing the 
sewers; upon saving grain and other provisions from rats, 
which are the emissaries of Fermentation and the imps of 
Drunkenness. He bears a resemblance to Father Mathew 
in character and physiognomy, in all the qualities enumerated 
above, in the features, and particularly in the expression, as 
Father Mathew bears a resemblance to Fenelon. The like- 
ness between these two noble catholic priests is indicated in 
the countenance, in the signs of benevolence, disinterested- 
ness, courage, magnanimity, purity, virtue, refinement, gen- 
tleness, and internal peace, breathing " peace on earth and 
good-will to man." 

It is perceived from these examples, and from every-day 
observation, that sobriet} 7 is an essential quality of the gentle- 
man, and that the least degree of intemperance is ungentle- 
manly ; yet conviviality is essential to sobriety, and insepara- 
ble from gentility, just as imagination is essential to reason, 
and is inseparable from refinement and intelligence. Con- 
viviality keeps company with nobility and courage. 'No truly 



268 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

brave person ever lived who was not convivial. Father 
Mathew is eminently so, and it is not at all inconsistent with 
his gravity, his earnestness and zeal ; and who can look at the 
face of Fenelon and not say that it is true of him? In the 
countenance of that terrier, too, there is conviviality : how 
bright and sparkling, and yet how gravely earnest ! Earnest- 
ness is the silken tie that unites these two apparently opposite 
traits together. A man to be convivial must be in earnest, 
he must have life about him, and he must be in " sober ear- 
nest" in order to be sober. The sober man, therefore, who 
does not labor to destroy intemperance, and to promote so- 
briety, as the terrier does, is but a sober thing, the principal 
attribute of which is inertia ; he is doomed to be a numbskull, 
in the degree that he is insensible in heart to the emotion of 
philanthropy, which is convivial. 

Nature has provided for this conviviality most beautifully, 
and it is the perversion of her admirable provision that con 
stitutes drunkenness. She has formed the patterns from which 
wineglasses and goblets of every description are derived ; and 
she has formed the nectar, in cups of her own, from which 
wines, cordials, and intoxicating liquors of every variety, are 
concocted and brought into existence. She is counterfeited 
with such skill, that people fancy they are sipping nectar, like 
the bee, when they are quaffing poison ; that they are making 
themselves brave, when they are making themselves cowardly ; 
that they are growing convivial, when they are growing riot- 
ous ; that they are acting the part of gentlemen, when they 
are acting the part of vagabonds ; that they are promoting 
cheerfulness, when they are promoting gloom; that they are 
improving their wit, when they are becoming foolish and in- 
sane ; that they are ministering to health, when they are pay- 
ing tribute to disease ; that they are giving themselves free 
dom and the love of independence, when they are making 
themselves miserably servile ; that they are, in fine, doing ev- 
erything right, when they are doing everything wrong. To 
such perversions does the counterfeiting of Nature's benefi- 
cent provision, and the perversion of conviviality, lead ! Con- 
viviality, companion of all graces and human excellences, 



THE DOG. 



269 



how beautiful thou art! Welcome art thou at the fireside, at 
the social board, if there is moral courage, truth, and honesty, 
enough to preclude and expel the base hypocrite who has 
counterfeited thy likeness ! welcome art thou at " the feast of 
reason and the flow of soul," and at the home of peace, virtue, 
and domestic affection ! 

But what shall we say of sobriety that is the result of self- 
ishness? There are those who desire to prolong life, and to 
escape suffering and disease, whether others fall victims to 
intemperance or not. The want of benevolence in such peo- 
ple shows itself in the want of conviviality. Life with them 
is such a life as cold-blooded animals enjoy. In their tem- 
perance they are not much better than vegetables, and make 
an approach to stocks and stones. The truth of this observa- 
tion is better exhibited in these two heads, the one of an 
Irishman and the other of a terrier, than can be expressed in 

words. The first is some- 
what exaggerated, but the 
latter is true to life. There 





is no vivacity in either, no conviviality, but dullness and stu- 
pidity. The unmitigated sobriety of both countenances is 
easily perceived. There is more of interest, of warmth, of 
gentlemanliness, in the face of an Irishman who makes him- 
self merry over his cups, than in this of one who takes the 
pledge because he has no disposition to break it. It is as if 
this dog should pledge himself to his master in a wink of the 
eye that he would never taste of a rat, having become too old 
and sober, if not too lazy, to catch one. 



270 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

Virtuous sobriety manifests itself in the temperate use of 
the beverages which Nature herself has provided. What 
preparation, earnestness, delicacy, boldness, and precision, 
are manifested in the humming-bird, as he hovers about a 
flower, and passes his slender bill into the cup that contains 
the pure spirit which so enlivens and thrills him! The con- 
viviality which belongs to true sobriety, or to temperance, cor- 
responds to the revelry of a bee in the heart of a flower, and 
to tire antics of a humming-bird as he approaches a blossom, 
ami threads the honey-cup with his bill in search of the nectar 
that delights him. 

But each stage of fermentation, as to the appetite that de- 
mands it, is a stage in the down-hill course of deception and 
mockery, of cowardice, cruelty, and degradation. The sac- 
charine fermentation is a perversion of the secretion in flow- 
ers that produces honey; and, corresponding with this, cow- 
ardice is the perversion of caution, and cruelty is the perver- 
sion of courage. All animals that live on honey, or are very 
fond of it, are remarkable for courage, and also for careful- 
ness, which is another name for caution, as, for example, the 
bee, the humming-bird, and the bear; but animals that are in 
the way of eating sugar instead of honey, and seem to prefer 
it, are deficient in those qualities, as, for example, the house- 
fly, the ant that lives in the sugar-bowl, and not unfrequently 
the wasp, besides which we may mention children that live 
on cakes and confectionery, and people who are very fond of 
sweetmeats and preserves. The red Americans made sugar 
from the maple, and the white ones manufacture it very ex- 
tensively from the cane, and use it, too, as a substitute for 
honey, which their resemblance to the bear includes a partic- 
ular love for; and this appetite for "sugar" (as if one species 
of saccharine matter were as good as another) indicates a 
difficulty of feeling the distinction between courage and cru- 
elty, and between caution and cowardice. 

The use of sugar is the stepping-stone to intemperance. The 
appetite grows npon a man by indulgence, and seizes him pe- 
riodically like the propensity for strong drink, so that he is 
finally made aware that his condition is like that of the 



THE DOG. 271 

drunkard. He requires larger and still larger potations of 
sugar to satisfy him ; he resolves against the intemperate use 
of it, and re resolves, but he can not see and resist the tempta- 
tion ; and when the appetite comes upon him, like that of the 
drunkard for his cups, he wanders and almost rushes in search 
of it, and goes from one candy-shop to another as the toper 
goes from one coffeehouse to another to satisfy himself with 
drams. This is no fancy sketch, but is taken from life. The 
appetite for the result of the saccharine fermentation is like 
that for the result of the vinous ; but with the appetite for 
honey or for any wholesome article of diet, unperverted by 
the use of sugar or intoxicating drinks, it is not so. 

Yet the deterioration connected with the first degree of 
fermentation is very slight compared with that which is con- 
nected with the second, and w T ould be hardly worth mention- 
ing if it did not lead to the latter. When the craving for 
sugar refuses to be satisfied, and when the anxiety of the ap- 
petite demands relief, there is a feeling that strong drink 
would be good ; but it is the sugar that renders brandy, gin, 
and toddy, palatable in the first place : nevertheless, when 
the mixture and the second degree in artificial courage are 
taken, those articles are loved raw. Of the cowardice con- 
nected with drunkenness, we have abundant examples in the 
Irish ; and as the appetite for alcohol is a greater perversion 
in those who resemble bears than in others, the Americans, 
both the Indians and the whites, when they take to drink, are 
the greatest drunkards in the world. The bear is by nature 
courageous in the extreme, and is in no need of having his 
courage stimulated ; he wrestles and fights hand to hand, and 
cuffs with his paws like a man with his fists, and will prey 
upon nothing that has not come to its death by his own hands ; 
and for him to touch fermentation would be a much greater 
perversion than for the dog, that is inclined to it. Hence the 
Irishman is excused for being a drunkard, but the Yankee 
never. 

If you are going to excuse anybody for indulging in intoxi 
cation, it will be one who feels under the influence of it as 
does the Irishman who is represented on the following page. 



272 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



His combined gestures are an imitation of the humming-bird 
over the honey-cup. Yet it would be hard-hearted to indulge 

a feeling of gratification at 
seeing him so merry with- 
out cause, especially when 
we reflect that " wounds 
and bruises without cause" 
are sure to follow. The so- 
ber, second thought refuses 
to be gratified at the exhi- 
bition of a tragic farce. The 
contagion of this poor fel- 
low's intoxication is worse 
than the original disease. 
The man who deals out in- 
toxicating drinks, but ab- 
stains from them himself, 
reaps his enjoyments from 
the fictitious enjoyments of 
others, and intoxicates his 
own mind in the degree 
that he intoxicates the bodies of his victims. This is a species 
of intoxication as much worse than the other as the soul is 
superior to the body. The preceding gentleman would never 
be engaged in so mean an employment as keeping a drinking- 
house : he would not steal the pleasure and the profit, and 
leave the penalty to another. On the next page is a dog that 
looks as if he would like to join him in his gambols ; and the 
resemblance between them shows that they would be fond of 
each other's society. He is a drover's dog, and may meet 
this gentleman at a country inn. The character of his busi- 
ness is such, that he must from necessity be unfeeling and 
cruel, though you can see by his good-natured countenance 
that it is superinduced, as it is in the man ; it is not so much 
his fault as the fault of circumstances. He has a sense of 
duty, in spite of his perversions, and is governed by that; so 
that his conscience does not trouble him, the responsibility 
being laid off upon his master, whose mandates he obeys; his 




THE DOG. 



273 




master, by-the-by, will have a great deal to answer for ! This 
same dog resembles the paddy given below, and the animal 
characteristics are the same in both. To a face like this 
what could be more be- 
coming than a pipe ? 
When the dog is made 
to "sit up," a short pipe 
is sometimes facetious- 
ly placed in the corner 
of his mouth to height- 
en his .resemblance to 
an Irishman — of which 
resemblance there ap- 
pears to be an intuitive 
perception in the mind 
of the operator. 

After the vinous fer- 
mentation, comes the 
acetous, and with it a degree ot cowardice and cruelty greater 
than the last. When a man's temper gets thoroughly spoiled 
by intemperance, he has passed the stage in which pure whis- 
key is grateful to him ; he fairly loathes the taste of it, and 
drinks it only to allay trembling and the fear of death, and 
to give him courage to live on. The spirit that he has steeped 
himself in has turned to vinegar, and his taste is for that 

18' 




274 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



which gives hirn more cowardice than courage. Wretched man I 
he no longer drinks liquor, but swills it, and swill is sour : the 
vilest liquor of the still is nearer to his taste than that he onco 
approved, and now vinegar is his taste, and his need of alco- 
hol the same as before. If hard cider or vinegar would sup- 
port his nerves, he might still fancy himself in Elysium ; but 
his nervous sensibilities are sharpened, his teeth are set on 
edge, he is tortured with dreadful apprehensions, and makes 
a slimpsy show of a gentleman ; he is all unstrung, he can 
scarcely hold himself together; his endeavor to pluck up 
courage turns into a plea for mercy ; he is fain to fawn, to beg 
for quarter, and to have a dog for his mas- 
ter. He has nothing but his dependence 
and misery to rely upon. He has nothing 
of the gentleman left to him, except the 
court-dress (if he be an Irishman), and this 
serves to make him contemptible by the 
contrast of what he is with what he should 
be. Observe how truly Nature intended the 
Irish to be gentlemen, lords, and nobles, 
in the fact that the poorest of them who 
come fresh to this country make their ap- 
pearance in court-costume ! 





We have heard it said that drinking hard cider makes a 
man more cross and crabbed than drinking rum. We doubt 
not but that it is so. A crabbed disposition is a miserably 
cowardly one : the man who owns such a trait is cruel with- 
out courage ; he can not delude himself for a moment into 
the idea that he is brave, or has the least particle of heroism. 
The same is the case with the person who is addicted to the 



THE DOG. 215 

use of vinegar, which, like the use of sugar, induces all the 
symptoms of intemperance, with the exception of intoxication. 
The individual can not deny that he is a coward, and he is 
not ashamed to own it, but makes it a plea for a thousand 
indulgences. He likes others to feel his alarm, and all the 
consequences of his cowardly apprehension, and to be gov- 
erned by fear as he is; and therefore even in his benevolence 
he is cruel, and in his morality he is a hard master, as he 
conceives God to be. In his goodness to others, and in his 
religion, he is a " hired servant." His reverence and humility 
are such as his evil appetite in exciting cowardice and cruelty 
will allow them to be. He feels as if something is not right, 
as the drunkard often feels, and as if he would dare to be 
told of his faults by one who is blind and can not see them; 
but the truth is, he can not bear to be told of a single one. 
He has not the courage to look upon it ; it would frighten 
him to death ; and therefore to set it forth would be an un- 
pardonable offence. He hates the person he is afraid of, but 
quails at the sight of him, and wishes to appear his friend. 

The dogs that bear a resemblance to the class of persons 
of whom this is a description are of the sheepish variety, and 
are allied to wolves. Cruelty requires to be gratified, and 
they have a feeling that, inasmuch as they look for it to be 
practised upon themselves, they ought not be disappointed in 
the apprehension ; but they have not the courage to face their 
masters, and to confess their crimes. The favor which they 
show to cruelty they exhibit in making an attack upon sheep, 
and this for the reason that sheep are their oldest and most- 
innocent companions. They can fancy that in the sufferings 
of sheep their own crimes are expiated, and that they suffer 
punishment by proxy ! They practise this species of decep- 
tion upon themselves for the reason that they are cowards ; 
and for their success in making capital out of nothing they 
rely upon the gullibility of others. They are "sly dogs," for 
the simple reason that cowardice leads to prevarication and 
falsehood, and that cruelty is not gratified in any way so com- 
pletely as by stratagem. Who can not see the unfeeling cru- 
elty and the cowardice in the eyes of the individual whom 



27« 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




we have represented above, to be compared with those of 
the wolf? — also the dishonesty that in the countenances of 
both is too intense for words? The " wolf's clothing" is more 
conspicuous in the man — in the crape on his hat, and in the 
entire face — than in the wolf; but what a villain is the latter, 

that stands there to give counte- 
nance to the proceedings ! You 
might be hoodwinked so thoroughly 
by that man as not to know that he 
is a coward ; but imagine a person 
taking him by the collar, and you 
can see that he will endeavor to 
slink away, will beg to be let go, 
and will promise solemnly to be seen 
in those parts no more ! 







THE DOG. 



277 



The taste acquired for the vinous fermentation leads to 
the putrefactive. Following the stage of drunkenness last 
described is that in which the fluids of the body are on the 
eve of losing their vitality, in which the breath is already 
putrid, and in which the body itself has been known to un- 
dergo decomposition, called in this case u spontaneous com- 
bustion." The man whose vitality holds out to this stage of 
drunkenness has scarcely anything left of a soul but suspicion 
and cowardice. His voice is sepulchral, and warns us nut to 
get within the sphere of the breath that accompanies it. The 
appetite accepts of food that is half rotten, and the degree of 
suspicion and cowardice is equal to that of the crow. Death 
stares him in the face, but does not stare him out of counte- 
nance, for the Death that he sees is a reflection of himself. 
He puts on the appearance of the grim monster perfectly. 

" Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound !" 

is a voice from his own breast, the breath from which is fetid, 
showing that he is " full of dead men's bones, and all unclean- 

ness." He looks as though he 
were frightened out of his seven 
senses, and no wonder : he does 





not see that it is himself that he is afraid of; it were well if 
he did ; but that it is himself is evident from the fact that he 
looks all the dreadful things that he sees. He is himself the 
monster that is to be dreaded. He is cruel, hard, unmerci- 
ful, like the dog beside him — an animal that ought to be 
shot for his own good and for the safety of others. Is this 
cruel? We do not say it of the man, but of the dog, the very 



278 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

embodiment of a thirst for blood. It is only in France that 
the dog can be perverted to the degree that may be called 
infernal, and even there it is only in the employ of a butcher 
and in the atmosphere of a slaughter-house that a dog can be 
made as this one is. The man, too, who is evidently an Irish- 
man, has undergone a metamorphosis that gives him a resem- 
blance to the Frenchman, and also to the frog. It is natural 
to the French to be fond of tainted meat and of fermented 
drink, but it is less natural to the Irish ; and for these to at- 
tain to the appetite for carrion is to become exceedingly per- 
verted. Yon can see by this man's countenance that putrid 
meat can go into his mouth as well as not. But anything 
fresh would go in with reluctance ; even whiskey is not easily 
swallowed. Imagine a man with the hydrophobia compelled 
to drink water, and you have an idea of the wretched condi- 
tion of the man who has carried drunkenness to the last 
degree. 

But " iniquity will have an end." The man who is not al- 
ready dead can be redeemed from intemperance even in the 
last degree. He will be a different person from what lie 
would have been if he had never become intemperate, but he 
will be reckoned among the sober, and an honorable position 
will be assigned him. The difference between him and the 
person who has never perverted himself will be as the differ- 
ence between the humble-bee and the humming-bird. The 
one will have a rioting, rollicking, savage, ungentlemanly way 
with him, while the other will be a perfect gentleman in all 
his manners. The drunkard on his last legs may be compared 
to the blow-fly when it has come to the degree of perfection 
in the fondness for carrion, at which time, it has so strong a 
resemblance to the humble-bee as almost to be mistaken for 
one. When the drunkard is in the corresponding condition, 
it is the time to save him. It was not known until a few 
years ago that the " confirmed drunkard" could be saved : 
the " Washingtonians" proved it to be practicable. We may 
suppose with good reason that the noble mastiff was derived 
from a dog like the preceding; and the drunkard when he is 
reformed has a mastiff-like countenance, the wild, furious, 



THE DOG. 



279 




ferocious aspect being tamed down into dignified courage and 
sobriety. The savage traits which he has acquired will be 
swayed by higher faculties ; but in 
spite of these they will render him 
harsh, and inclined to rend and tear, 
and to nse his wit sarcastically against 
the very vice that he has been ad- 
dicted to. He can learn to be mag- 
nanimous, and even forgiving, but he 
will never be very amiable. He has 
that kind of character and physiog- 
nomy that are seen in the portrait of Ben Jonson, and particu- 
larly in Irishmen, most of whom were born of intemperate 
ancestors — the reformed drunkard and the child of a drunk- 
ard being alike. 




280 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

By knowing what animal a man resembles, we possess a 
clew to his character that may be of great use to us. We 
can judge of the secret springs of his conduct, of those mo- 
tives of action that have their origin in nature, and that are 
almost as inevitable in man as they are in the lower orders 
of the animal creation. The knowledge of character by the 
signs in the face will be very materially assisted by a knowl- 
edge of the animal nature that is made up of a man's ruling 
traits. You must understand what his character is by nature 
if you would understand how various rational and moral in- 
fluences would affect him ; and this nature of his is something 
homogeneous, something that is presented individually in 
some department or other of the animal kingdom. The abil- 
ity of getting at this resemblance will improve by use. At 
first you do not see that one man in a hundred has any re- 
semblance to any particular animal, but the habit of study 
and observation will make it plain. 

In this lady, for example, you would not at first sight dis- 
cover that she resembled a dove, but you perceive something 
in her that produces the effect upon your feelings that you 
experience in relation to that bird. You may even call her 
" Dove," and be as familiar with her as lovers are with their 
lady-loves, and yet suppose that it is a mere fancy that leads 
you to call her by that endearing appellation. But you may 
be sure she is like the dove in disposition if she is like in 
face and in the sphere that she throws around her. She has 
the element, as the basis of her character, that is embodied 
in that bird ; and it is her ruling trait, so far as her animal 
nature is concerned. And it is very likely that her moral 
character will correspond to it : it would be strange if it did 



THE DOVE. 



281 





not. The moral and intellectual character has less to con- 
trol in one who resembles a dove than in one who resembles 
a lion. The signs of the higher faculties exhibit, therefore, 
more refinement in the one and more strength in the other, 
and this places them on a par in respect to virtue and intelli- 
gence. In this character goodness finds a congenial soil, and 
it is therefore luxuriant but tender. In a character that re- 
sembles the lion, goodness finds a rock to grapple and a furi- 
ous climate to contend with, and it is therefore strong and 
rigid like the oak. 

There are, however, a great variety of doves and pigeons, 
as there are of frogs and toads, and they constitute as great a 
variety of character. 

A certain likeness and apposition is to be observed between 
the person who resembles a dove and the one who resembles 
a hen. The relation is something like that of octaves in mu- 
sic. On the following page is the portrait of a Spaniard who 
resembles a cock. The Spaniards resemble cocks as the 
Irish resemble dogs. Love of contest, and love of triumph, 
and subserviency, are ruling traits in both characters. Cock- 
fighting is a passion with the Spaniards, as it is with the cock. 
In some of the provinces of Spain it is the favorite game ; in 
others, bull-fighting is the favorite diversion ; but contest in 
some form or other is a passion. The Spaniards and the Irish 
are as much like each other in their fondness for fighting as 
the cock is like the dog. But they differ in the mode. The 
dog gives no quarter : the cock beats his antagonist and then 



282 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



runs, and the conquered party runs after him, and in his turn 

becomes the conqueror. This is the way with the Spaniards, 

» as exemplified in the contest 

between Don Carlos and the 
late regent Queen Christina. 





In bull-fights it is the same. There is advantage allowed to 
both parties, though that which is shown to the bull is a mock- 
ery rather than otherwise. With the Irish it is not so. They 
fight like dogs, as if in a contest with " grim Death," to whom, 
as they expect no quarter, they will yield none. The Irish 
have to be parted. Not so the Spaniards : they fight upon 
the principle — 

" That he who fights and runs away 
May live to fight another day !" 

The military ambition of the Spaniard is concentrated in a 
victorious contest with John Bull — always was, and always 
will be. The rules of honor in a bull-fight are a specimen of 
the magnanimity with which he regards that formidable 
power that it is his glory to contend with. 

One of the most singular things about the cock is his crow- 
ing when he considers himself in the long run to have gained 
the victory. Both crow, and the contest has turned into one 
of lungs. Precisely so it is with the Spaniards. They blow 
the trumpet of fame in honor of a victory louder than any- 
body else, and that is saying a great deal. It is all the same 



THE COCE". 



283 



whether they anticipate or have gained the victory, or whether 
they might have gained it had the circumstances been dif- 
ferent. 




Of the many instances of the 
confident Coasting and triumphant 
exultation of the Spaniards which 
might be given, we quote the fol- 
lowing " from an ode by Luis de 



Gongora :" ■ 




Raise thy renowned hand, 



O Spain ! from French Pyrenee to the land 
Where the Moor Atlas lifts his mountain height. 
And at the martial trumpet's lofty sound 
Bid thou thy valiant offspring cluster round 
Beneath thy old victorious banners, bright 
In hardest adamant, a fearful sight! — 

Such that the lands of languid power, 
The nations leagued against thy faith, dismayed 

At the strong radiance of thy beamy arms. 
At the fierce splendor of the falchion-blade, 

With looks averted, in alarms, 
Shall turn at once their eyes and backs for flight, 
Like clouds before the deity of day; 
Or even, like yielding wax, dissolve away 
Before the luminous and golden fire 
That from their graven helmets forth shall fly ; 
As blind of faith, so blinded then in eye !*' 

An equally vivid representation of the cock, with his scai 
let crown, his valiant look, his martial feathers^ his savage 
beak, his shrill clarion, his solid spurs, lifted with pride, 
energy, and scorn, would be parallel to the above; but he 
has more of defiance and victory in his aspect than can be 
expressed in words ! The young cock crows in a strain like 



284 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

the following. (It is a " poem written in the character of a 
child ; a species of playful composition popular among the 
Spaniards" at the time of the great " Armada" for the inva- 
sion of England in 1585-88.) A little girl is speaking to her 
playfellow, and tells him — 

" My brother Don John 
To England is gone, 
To kill the Drake, 
And the queen to take, 
And the heretics all to destroy : 
And he will give me, 
When he comes back, 
A Lutheran boy 
With a chain round his neck ; 
And grandmamma 
From his share shall have 
A Lutheran maid, 
To be her slave !'" 

Thus, in the Spaniard, is illustrated the proverb that " as 
.the old cock crows so crows the young." Whether his giving 
a chance to the enemy is the result of what pugilists call 
" honor," or is the result of a desire to have an excuse in case 
of defeat, does not appear. It is doubtful, however, whether 
the cock would think so far as that. It is more probably the 
action of his wonderful subserviency, indicated by the wattles 
under the jaw. When a fellow-being is weak, this subservi- 
ency is prompted to help him ; and when the antagonist is 

" wamble-cropped" and beaten, 
the victor regards him in the light 
of a hen, and instantly gives quar- 
ter; and then being turned upon 
when his anger is at zero he runs, 
and his ugly Xantippe after him. 
And thus the fortune of the game 
passes from one hand to another. 
The Spaniards are famous cav- 
aliers. They were the greatest 
knights-errant in the world. The cock is famous for his gal- 
lantry and his chivalrous bearing, and for his spirit in defend- 




THE COCK. 



285 




ing the females whose safety he is responsible for. But m 
spite of this, or perhaps on account of it, he is inclined to be 
jealous. He regards his lady-love as under excessive obliga- 
tions to him, and he expects to be rewarded by the most de- 
voted attachment. If he has delivered her from a castle, he 
considers that he has a right to lock her up in one ; he does 
not expect, neither will he allow, the least wandering; but 
he is apprehensive that she may be stolen from him, and 
therefore he is excessively jealous. And it must be confessed 

that he has reason to be, for 
his neighbors have as much 
gallantry with respect to im- 
prisoned females as he him- 
self has ! When he fancies 
that his treasure is in danger 
of escaping him, he plucks 
her by the head, and having 
done it once he is sure to 
need to do it twice ; and thus 
his true gallantry particle by 
particle escapes from him, and he becomes a petty despot. 
His gallantry takes a wider range ; it shows itself in a bad 
sense : his business is 
to deliver ladies from 
their cruel lords, and 
he finds that he has 
a plenty of it to do, 
and that the females 
whom he is inclined 
to take under his pro- 
tection are very nu- 
merous. Of course, 
be is aware that the 
c*ame disposition ex- 
ists in his neighbors, 
and that they will 
look upon him, and 
justly too, as one of 




£'SG COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

the cruel lords who holds one or more of the fair sex in con- 
finement. If under these circumstances he can catch one of 
them in the neighborhood of his domains, he is sure to chas- 
tise him, if he is able to, and for this he claims the merit of a 
chivalrous action. Such a chance to display his gallantry is 
a rare fortune, and he sounds aloud his exploits in the ears 
of his greatly-obliged and admiring hens, with his face toward 
home, and on his march thither. In other words, and placing 
it in the past — 

44 Gayly the troubadour touched his guitar 
As he was hastening home from the war, 
Singing, ' From Palestine hither I come, 
Lady-love, lady-love, welcome me home !' " 

Only for the knight-errantry of the Spaniards, some few of 
their number would have more wives than the sultan. 

As Spaniards of the best quality are produced in Spain, 
the cocks that are produced there are of better quality than 
those of any other country. The Spanish cock is superior 
game, but its highest excellence consists in the quality of its 
flesh, which is said to be superior to that of any other of its 
kind It is to be expected that the country that is best for 
the cock should favor a likeness to that animal in man, and 
should develop national characteristics founded in that resem- 
blance. The same principle holds true with regard to the ox, 
the hog, the bear, the goose, the swan, the frog, the dog, and 
we believe with regard to all the other animals that have been 
mentioned. The people who resemble a particular animal 
naturally prefer the country that is suited to that animal, but 
do not always live there ; and as it is the animal that becomes 
suited to the country, and not the country to the animal, we 
may suppose that it is the man that becomes suited to the 
animal, and not the animal to the man. 



ra& ^OAT 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

Among the variety of human faces a resemblance to the 
goat is very frequently to be met with. This resemblance is 
plainly discoverable in the face of Sforza; and the prominent 
traits in the character of the goat are easily traced in his. 




Large combative faculties, energy, perseverance, and precis- 
ion, are discoverable at a single glance. In the man who re- 
sembles the goat, the most prominent traits are indicated in 
the most prominent part of the countenance. In these two 
profiles the ridge of the nose is distinguished for something 
more than prominence and convexity : it has a peculiarity of 
its own, indicating a manner of exercising the combative fac- 
ulties that may be called dogmatic. Pugilism in a nose like 
this takes a particular direction : the bent of the reasoning 
faculties is indicated in a certain bend of the nose, which fur- 
nishes a sort of channel for dispute and polemical controversy. 
The " doctors and lawyers" of the olden time are represented 
always with features like these ; and because the represent a- 



288 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

tions are thus true to life, they seem like portraits. In such 
noses and in such a form of the ridge of the eyebrow as the 
preceding, there are elastic energy and activity, and a strength 
that overcomes resistance. Such heads are formed not only 
for striking with great force, but for pushing; they present a 
hard front to whatever obstacles stand in the way, and are 
ever upon the lookout for a challenge, and ready to receive 
one. They join battle with canons and creeds rather than 
with windmills and inoffensive sheep; yet they reflect upon 
themselves, for all their labor and warfare is to show *hat 
what they are fighting with is a man of straw. 

In proof of the correctness of these remarks, we would refer 
the reader to the portraits of distinguished controversialists, 
such as Calvin and John Knox. The age of chivalry abound- 
ed with snch ; and it should be observed here that they are 
similar in many respects to those who resemble cocks. The 
difference between them is that which exists between chivalry 
and the crnsades. In nothing, but in what might be called 
the crusades of the Jews (for example, in driving out the Ca- 
naanites, Hivites, Hittites, Jebusites, Philistines, &c), could 
the goatish propensity b^ more strongly exhibited than in a 
crusade to the Holy Land : this was the result, not only of 
the goatish action of the combative faculties, but of a likeness 
to the Jews, and of a liking for Judea, and for whatever the 
Jews were particularly fond of; for the Jews have a striking 
resemblance to the goat, as will be shown in the sequel. Un- 
der the influence of religious enthusiasm they made impetu- 
ous or goatlike descents upon the possessions of others, and 
the history of the crusades bears a striking analogy to theirs. 
As the cock and the goat are attached to the barnyard and 
the dunghill, and have a similar air and manner, and resem- 
ble each other in profile, so those who resemble these animals 
are intimately related to each other in character and physiog- 
nomy. 

The word " striking" is particularly applicable to the goat- 
like face, as illustrated in the preceding engraving and in the 
following portrait of Beza. This old reformer, the associate 
of Calvin, and one of the most learned and zealous controver- 



THE GOAT. 



289 



gialists of his time, shows in his countenance the character of 
the goat as plainly as he exhibited it in his actions. Who can 
not see that of him, and of the class of which he is a worthy 
representative, it may be said — 



By apostolic blows and knocks 
They prove their doctrines orthodox V 





By-the-by, the apostles were Jews, and some of them fine ex- 
amples of the peculiarity in question. 

A faculty which contributes more than any other to render 
the action of the combative faculties in the goat peculiar, is 
subterfuge. This is indicated by the falling or overhanging 
of the ridge of the eyebrow over the inner angle of the eye, as 
seen in the figures preceding. In that ridge of the brow there 
is always something striking in the person who resembles a 
goat; it looks as if it were formed to make a hole in the wall, 
so that the enemy might enter in martial triumph with all his 
hosts. How proudly he proceeds ! It is because his subter- 
fuge is subservient to his combativeness : if it were not so, it 
would make him sneaking and cowardly. It is this faculty 
which causes the goat to make his attack in the rear, when- 
ever he has an opportunity ; but his attack is so large, and is 
exercised so boldly, that he carries? his head proudly, as if he 
had not been guilty of a meanness, and did not meditate the 
cowardly act which at any moment he is ready to perpetrate. 
The principle of action with the goat, and with the person 
who resembles that animal, is vis atergo — it may be set down 
as their governing motive. They drive things, or, in other 
words, they are dogmatic. They do not lead, or persuade; 
and yet they do not come up boldly as antagonists, but manage 

19 



290 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



to get uehind, and there to attack so boldly, that they mistake 
the back side for the front, and claim to " have done the thing 
fairly," and to have carried the redoubt courageously ! 

But subterfuge favors cowardice more than bravery. It 
runs to refuges and retreats, to prevarication and falsehood 
(which is always cowardly), and " crawls out at the little end 
of the horn.'' It has a thousand resorts, and most of these 
are confined places, or under-ground passages, where the air 
is polluted by excretion and putrescence, and is nut relieved 
by ventilation. Thus cowardice, which is favored by subter- 
fuge, is still more increased by the causes of stench, as before 
explained. The habitation of the animal that has large sub- 
terfuge " smells old," and the animal himself does so ; he is 
"in bad odor" with all who have true courage and magna- 
nimity, and not the mere pretension to it, like the goat. This 
animal has the odor alluded to in greater perfection than any 
other; it is the sphere of cowardice, and of traits worthy of 
being distrusted ; and the sphere of the person who resembles 
the goat has a repelling influence upon those of a different 
character, and is of the kind to " knock a man down." Thus 
there is an agreement between subterfuge and combativeness ; 

and every goat, as well as 

"every cock, fights best. 

on his own dunghill." 
It has been frequently 

observed that in certain 

characters there is a sin- 
gular meeting of oppo- 

sites. The love of climb- 
ing is diverse from subterfuge, but it acts harmoniously with 
that faculty, as combativeness does. The goat is fond of ta- 
king his station where he can get under a rock or mount to 
the top of it, and is familiarly seen at the side of a flight of 
steps, where he can get under or ascend, as one or the other 
of these dispositions happens to predominate. The sign of 
the love of climbing is the anterior projection of the ridge of 
the eyebrow over the centre of the eye — large in the goat and 
in those who resemble him. In human beings the ambition 





THE GOAT. 



291 



ST- 



to rise includes this faculty, together with the love of emi- 
nence, indicated in the elevation of the wing of the nostril by 
the muscle called the levator nasi. 
The love of climbing may be so 
strongly excited as to produce an in- 
flammation of the membrane that 
lines the frontal sinus in the place 
which indicates this faculty, and in 
this case there is pain and distress 
in that portion of the forehead. This 
remark is applicable to the person 
of whom this is a profile, and whose 
" synonym," if we mistake not, is a 
mountain-goat. The faculty of weight 
is intimately related to the love of 
climbing — and hence Nature has 
given to animals fond of clamber- 
ing heavy horns, as in the case of the ibex. In the example 
before us, Nature has slung, not a bottle, but a horn — 




upon each side, 



To keep his balance true." 

There is a sympathetic spirit between these two, the person 
and the animal. 




COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

Now consider what must be the effect of this combination 
of combativeness, subterfuge, love of climbing, love of emi- 
nence, and balance and sure-footed ness. It must be some- 
thing very nearly allied to diplomacy. How nicely every- 
thing must be weighed, measured, and adjusted, by the man 
who resembles the animal that climbs precipitous rocks, and 
spends his life in perfect safety among cliffs and crags, cav- 
erns and pitfalls! The important office of the diplomatist 
may be assigned to him with the greatest propriety. It is a 
rare talent that distinguishes the man who resembles the 
mountain-goat, the ibex, or the chamois. He is often called 
upon to take a leap where the greatest danger is involved, 
and where not a moment is to be lost; and it is never into 
an oozy bed, like that of the frog, and is never therefore a 
leap in the dark. The man who resembles the goat always 
knows what he is about, and is always prudent so far as policy 
and expediency are concerned. A single reflection will sat- 
isfy the reader that the Jews possess the faculties here referred 
to in a super-eminent degree. 

The connection of subterfuge and combativeness with the 
love of climbing is seen in the disposition to undermine natu- 
ral and artificial walls and eminences, and to strike against 
those solid substances that compose an ascent and offer resist- 
ance to progression. Hence the goat and those who resemble 
him are suited in their tastes and habits to ruins and to every- 
thing which savors of the old. A mountain, with 



ruined sides and summit hoar,' 



is especially pleasing to them, and ivy-mantled towers and 
the fragments of ancient temples are their delight. There is 
an aristocratic bearing about them, and their thoughts are as- 
sociated with grandeur, in which the eternal and the perish- 
able are equally mingled; the contemplation of immortality 
being assisted by the emblems of frailty and of the insubstan- 
tiality of sublunary things. The love of his "holy hill of 
Zion," of his "beautiful temple," and of the rites and cere- 
monies of his religion (so remarkable for their accuracy and 
precision), is a characteristic of the Jew. 



THE GOAT 



293 



The faculty of acquisitiveness operates as a leading motive 
in the character of the goat and of those who resemble him, 
and it dovetails with the faculties before mentioned most ad- 
mirably. Who has not observed the thievish propensities of 
this animal, and how boldly he exercises them in connection 
with combativeness, and how impudently in connection with 
combativeness and subterfuge ? We could not bring a stronger 
example of the action of this faculty in the particular way 
which constitutes a resemblance to the goat, than in the Isra- 
elite. Boldness and impudence are cheap in those places 
where the " old-clo' " men congregate ; and what we have 
already said of the love of antiquity, and of old smells, and 
of bodily excretions, explains the partiality manifested by 
these people for trading in cast-off garments, old furniture, 
and the like. The goat which this person resembles is simi- 
lar to a sheep, but the similarity serves to heighten the dis- 
tinction. The person who resembles the goat has a mouth 





which indicates a taste for tobacco — a self-complacent appre- 
ciation of the quality which he calls " sweet," and which 
others are insensible of, in the nature of that weed. It is a 
Charles Goat rather than a Charles Lamb who says in earnest 

to tobacco : — 

" Plant of rarest virtue ! 

Blisters on the tongue that hurts you !" 

A likeness to the sheep betokens spiritual perceptions, and 
the ability to distinguish between the peculiarities of one per- 



294 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

son and those of another; but a likeness to the goat betokens 
an external mind, and hence a deficient knowledge of human 
nature. Of course, such a character is a very superficial one ; 
it is hardly worth the trouble of analyzing. 

In the preceding figure it is easy to see that the eyes are 
mere windows to look out of. They observe the clothing of 
the spirit, and to them it is true that — 

44 Nature has made man's breast no windows 
To publish what goes on within doors, 
Or what dark secrets there inhabit, 
Unless his own rash fury blab it!" 

Hence they are interested in clothes and superficial orna- 
ments, and the Jews trade and traffic in these the world over, 
particularly in jewels, which are well named, being the fa- 
vorite merchandise of the Jews. They are no judges of 
character, and think that others will not know anything more 
of them than they blab. They make no distinctions, but ad- 
dress all with the same ridiculous familiarity, or formality, as 
the case may be. In Chatham street they do not distinguish 
you from a common loafer ; you are not supposed to know 
the profession of the person who calls after you until he has 
pointed at his wares, nor to know whether you want anything 
or not, nor to have any mind of your own, for a mind is a 
thing which a Jew does not recognise. Look at those eyes: 
they catch every object that passes, that may be converted 
into gain ; they are as full of business as a squirrel's cheeks 
are of nuts ; they speculate on the solid attractions of woman, 
and may possibly see jewels in her eyes. His mouth is the 
figure of a tulip, and is fond of ruby lips and tobacco, the 
ruby of his own being the stain of the juice. Love with him 
is a gratification of the senses ; it does not go deeply into his 
heart, and hence he makes no demands upon the hearts of 
others; he is a favorite of the ladies rather than otherwise, 
for, as he asks no heart, he puts them to no inconvenience to 
find out whether they have any. If he ever heard of "heart- 
strings," he thought of "purse-strings;" and when he hears 
of " a man of worth," he thinks of riches. The correspondent 



THE GOAT. 295 

of all these traits is in the goat. This animal is all attention 
to the external ; he has uncommon quickness of the senses. 
You never see a dreamy or abstracted look in his countenance, 
as you do in the sheep and the cow, and other domestic ani- 
mals. He sees every motion you make, and so quickly that 
he seems almost to perceive your intention ; but if your mo- 
tive is pacific he does not know it; his nature compels him 
to act upon the principle of treating every man as a rogue ; 
his countenance, be it ever so full of honesty, goes for noth- 
ing, unless he be himself in an honest mood, and then even 
the basest usage can not destroy his confidence ; he may be 
seized repeatedly by a dog, and cry bitterly, but in the inter- 
vals will make no attempt to escape. 



296 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

In traversing the thorougn tares and by-ways of a great city, 
we are impressed with the conviction that there are multi- 
tudes of people who resemble goats. There is a variety of 





countenances that forcibly remind 
us of " some sort of animal," though 
we can not say that there is anything 
f ,, very gross or beastly in its appear- 

/ I] \ \ \ ance. An example is herewith pre- 

sented, and on closer inspection it is 
the physiognomy of a goat. The in- 
dividual before us is the representa- 
tive of a class, who look so very in- 
nocent of any relationship to inferior 
creatures, that we do not at first 
sight form a very distinct idea of 
the animal they resemble. They 
give you to understand that they 
are descended from an ancient and 
honorable ancestry, and cany theii 
heads with such an air of knowing 
what they are about, that you begin to accuse yourself of un- 
pardonable irreverence in harboring the suspicion that they 



THE GOAT. 297 

have a family likeness to the goat. The more you peer into 
their countenances, the more you are mystified and perplexed 
with a "lawless and uncertain" imagining; a vague impres- 
sion steals over you that there is some sort of connection be- 
tween beard and tobacco, and of these with goat, but you are 
determined not to credit the evidence of your senses. 

It is a physiognomy like the preceding that excites this sort 
of metaphysical discussion in your mind. A proper nse of 
the faculty of comparison would place this specimen of the 
genus homo where he belongs. He is cut ont and formed 
specially for "dancing attendance" upon the ladies; and the 
ladies, dear souls, are quick to perceive the intentions of Na- 
ture. He is the very person to dance with when it is & part- 
ner that is wanted. That great prominence of the bone under 
the eye is an indication that he sees everything: hence he is 
the very person that is wanted in the cotillon, when it is need- 
ful that everything should be seen to, and that the dance 
should go off respectably. The motions in the ballroom are 
like those that are exercised in "dancing attendance," and 
the grace and elegance of the latter are greatly enhanced by 
the systematic exercise of which they are the original. The 
goat has a "light fantastic toe," and "trips it lightly." The 
performances called dancing, par excellence, are derived from 
a resemblance to the goat, which no person need be ashamed 
of, unless this element in his nature be in too great proportion, 
or too literal. The actions of this animal upon which we predi- 
cate our assertions are thus described : " She walks, stops 
short, runs, jumps, advances, retreats, shows, then hides her- 
self, or flies ; and this all from caprice, or without any other 
determinate cause than her whimsical vivacity." A very cor- 
rect description of a dance certainly, and it may be true also 
that these "irregular" movements show "inconstancy," as 
natural history supposes ; but when they are regulated by 
music, which brings order out of confusion, they show the 
opposite. 

A word upon this subject. A resemblance to the goat ar- 
gues a vast deal of amativeness, with very great impulsive- 
ness of this faculty; and this sort of love is fickle and incon- 



298 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

stant. The very motions described above are indications of 
this, and are lewd and vulgar; but in the degree that they 
are various and complicated they are subject to the influence 
of music, and become finally amenable to its laws. Music in 
this connection is first an element of bacchanalian revel, and 
is prostituted to debauchery and licentiousness by the superi- 
ority of that which it attempts to reform ; but after a time it 
acquires the mastery, and governs the motions, and makes 
them, like itself, the language of constancy, purity, and love 
— expressive of the most delicate relations of the sexes, of 
refinement, friendship, and affection. As love and happiness 
are united, so are music and the poetry of motion, and it is 
natural to sing for love and to dance for joy. 

Look again, if you please, at our hero. If you are not a 
woman, you can see by his countenance that he has in his 
mouth something delicious ; you are sure that it is a quid, and 
that he " rolls it as a sweet morsel under his tongue." That 
in the muscles of his cheeks, and in his lips and tongue, there 
is the power of extracting the juice, and also of projecting it, 
is all plain to a masculine judgment; and his face is so 
largely concerned in his duties to the weed, that there is 
something delicious in his countenance. He says, when he 
stuffs a chew through the aperture appropriated to that pur- 
pose, that he u puts it into his face" And yet not one wo- 
man in twenty would know that he chews. He looks with 
doating eyes on the lovely fair, and that is sufficient to with- 
draw their attention from everything but the eyes that are 
capable of such appreciation. But the eye indicates taste, 
and such taste as corresponds to that of the tongue. The 
ideas which a tobacco-monger forms of a sweet face and of a 
sweet disposition correspond to his ideas of sweetness. 

Why it is that one who resembles the goat is fond of to- 
bacco, we have not yet discovered. Certain it is that a per- 
son with features like the preceding, and with such a beard, 
can not be otherwise than fond of the drug. The appetite is 
natural to him, or rather we should say that it is easily ac- 
quired, and that he holds it with more tenacity than he does 
his saliva! He is one who does evervthing with an air of 



THE GOAT. 



299 



nonchalance, and is " well to do" in the world, and has some- 
thing to chew upon, like the goat that retires and ruminates 
upon the stock of food that he has gathered. Here is a lot 
of people who resemble goats, and have all of them the air 
and manner that have been described. The resemblances 
are most admirable, as may be seen by comparing them one 
by one with the individual goats we have met with and have 
seen in print. Yet the artist had only the intention of repre- 
senting a company of persons under the habitual influence of 
tobacco, and has evidently drawn from his observation — so 




much so, that we are inclined to think that he has given us. 
portraits, or, better still, that we have seen these portraits be- 
fore. They speak for themselves, for countenances will speak, 
even in church. It is easy to see rumination in the faces of 
the men, and perception in those of the women, which must 
be highly gratifying to the preacher, whose expression is that 
of delivery. The man nearest the desk is taking in an idea, 
and it is evidently a great one. The man with his back to 



300 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

us, and facing the speaker, is on the verge of apprehending/ 
and is pausing and deliberating upon the event, as if there 
were no weightier consideration than that of listening. The 
man with a profile is cogitating upon the probable quantity 
of tobacco-juice he will be able to express from the cud that 
he has now in his mouth before he will be obliged to throw it 
away. The remaining, fat-faced, good-natured individual, is 
the only respectable person in the congregation : he extracts 
sweets from his tobacco and from the sermon as skilfully as a 
bee does from poison flowers, and is hospitable with pipes 
and tobacco to others more than to himself, thereby exceed- 
ing the requirement of the golden rule. The preacher is one 
who asks " a chaw" from every man he meets, as is plainly 
indicated by his countenance ; and he patronizes the last- 
mentioned individual especially, and is blessed with an in- 
stinct in his fingers of seizing a pinch of snuff without know- 
ing it, and of conveying it to his nose during one of his 
emphatic courtesies. 

But the female part of the congregation — we leave them 
to an abler pen than our own. The speaker addresses all his 
eloquent words to the men, for they have reverence — and 
are of the opinion that such a sermon as that is u not to be 
sneezed at!" A woman, considering his "pinching wants," 
is offering to supply them, not dreaming that she is wanting 
in veneration ; and just now the preacher is touching upon 
the sublime, and making an appeal to the organ of venera- 
tion rather than to that of benevolence, which makes the 
offering of a pinch of snuff highly improper, especially as he 
might say : " I am not speaking to you, ladies, but to these 
gentlemen ; when I have something to say on charity, I will 
turn to you !" But it is a hard thing for women, who are so 
fond of attention, to see it bestowed on others, and not make an 
effort to gain it. That woman, especially, shows by her coun 
tenance that she is ever ready to thrust herself upon the at- 
tention of others, making herself officious, and in the face of 
reluctant admiration and cold indifference acting upon the 
principle, "Never give up the ship !" 

We opine that the preacher is haranguing from a text from 



THE GOAT. 301 

Paul, and that the subject is "justification by faith." Paul 
was a converted Jew, and he would have been a strange Jew 
indeed if he had not preserved the national characteristics. 
The intricac} 7 " and subtlety of his reasoning, his discussions 
about the law, his manner of dispute, his cross-questionings 
and answers, show that he was " a Hebrew of the Hebrews," 
and that it was not for nothing that he was brought up at the 
feet of Gamaliel, and that the manner of his life was after 
the strictest sect of the Pharisees. He was the lawyer before 
Festus; the doctor in his epistles; and fully and thoroughly 
Jewish, in being u all things to all men, that he might win 
6ome." The Jews, scattered among the nations, are admira- 
ble diplomatists, for " when they are in Rome they do as the 
Romans do." All the Jews that are converted to Christianity 
are converted through the instrumentality of Paul ; and it 
may be that that class of Gentiles who seem to say, " I am 
of Paul," are slightly Judaized. 

The long beard of the goat indicates the impulsiveness of 
those faculties the signs of which are in the chin. The per- 
son who resembles this animal is remarkable for the same 
manifestation of the faculties of love. The disposition which 
more than anything else renders the goat a disgusting animal, 
is indicated in the breadth of his lower jaw, his peculiar odor, 
his prominent sacrum, the action of his head in the direction 
of the lower jaw, and the wanton manners, or u whimsical 
vivacity," before alluded to. This, together with the fondness 
for external objects and for the gratification of the senses, ren- 
ders the person who resembles the goat exceedingly sensual, 
and a very perfect example of the "lusts of the flesh, the lust 
of the eye, and the pride of life." 

Amativeness, with nothing to counteract it, and with sub- 
terfuge and suspicion to favor it, leads to u filthiness of the 
flesh," and to stimulant heats of fermentation and beds 
of filth, where whatever is engendered is the vilest of the 
animal creation, together with pestilence, contagion, and dis- 
ease. 

But this is applicable only to those who resemble the goat 
of the stable (see next page) more than the wL'd. and free, and 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 





unperverted animal that inhabits the mountains. The goat 
has only to exercise his faculties of love of climbing and love 

of eminence to remove the pop- 
ular prejudice against him ; 
and the Jew, against whom 
there is a corresponding preju- 
dice, is greatly admired when 
he aspires to a high position, 
and attains an eminence where 
he can exercise his noble gifts. 
In such a case, even the natural grossness of the character be- 
comes agreeable ; there is abundant provision for the body, 
and the corporeal necessities of others are attended to: the 
ancient hospitality, so beautifully exemplified by the patri- 
archs, is still observed, and the Jew is deserving of the name 
which is freely given to him, and which h& accepts without 
ostentation, of being " good-natured and hospitable." Yet his 
hospitality is seldom returned, except in the " Welcome, stran 
gers, to dwell among us, if you will," which sounds so pleas- 
antly to the "strangers in a strange land." 

Yet it is natural that the hospitality that is extended to the 



THE GOAT. 303 

Jews should be stinted, and nobody is to blame for it. They 
are scattered among the Gentiles, and are nowhere tolerated 
in large numbers. In like manner, goats are scattered, one 
in this flock of sheep and another in that, a few here and a 
few there, though it was once their right and their custom to 
live together. There is a sphere about them that, concen- 
trated, would be intolerable; and so they are spread abroad, 
notwithstanding they are naturally gregarious. The Jews 
have very great inhabitiveness, and wherever they are scat- 
tered they are a distinct people, and think of a return to their 
promised land, which is their home still. They are still ani- 
mated by the spirit that prompted that beautiful psalm : — 

"By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, 
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion! 
We hanged our harps upon the willows 
In the midst thereof. 

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; 
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, 
Saying, « Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' 
How shall we sing the Lord's song 
In a strange land ? 
If 1 forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
Let my right hand forget her cunning; 
If I do not remember thee, 

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." 

In this charming expression of the love of home, is included 
whatever is domestic and social. Music and dancing are so 
— the first expressing love, and the latter the happiness at- 
tendant thereon; and they are mentioned in order, and with 
poetic allusions ; the instrument of music, the song, and the 
dance. The harp is hung upon the willow, for its music 
should be like that of the wind-harp, plaintive and sad, and 
the willow is the emblem of mourning. The song is like that 
of the captive bird — 

" Warbling its native wood-notes wild" 

with a sad memory of its wild-wood home, and gratifying the 
unreasonable requirement of its captors The dance is per- 



SJfJ'J: COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

formed with wasted strength ; and the "sacred mirth" of holy- 
love and worship, joining the harp and the song, is required 
by those who enfeeble them, and is the saddest token of all. 
How shall the bird sing the song of the wild-woods in its wiry 
prison? and how shall the Jew sing the Lord's song in a 
•strange land ? He can not; and yet his practice upon the 
harp shall prove that he does not forget Jerusalem ; the use 
of his tongue in singing shall prove that he remembers her : if 
he can forget her, let his hand forget its skill npon instru- 
ments ; if he ceases to remember, let his tongue refuse to sing ; 
if he prefer not Jerusalem above his chief joy, let him never 
again " joy in the dance." 

It may be supposed that we have wandered quite beyond 
our province, which is the resemblance between the Jew and 
the goat. The goat has very great inhabitiveness, as all ani- 
mals have that inhabit mountains and are sheltered by rocks ; 
but the strongest love of home is that of mountain and valley 
combined, and this is particularly manifested in the goat. 
Jerusalem was built upon a steep rock in the midst of a val- 
ley. This is such a place as the goat would choose, as best 
suited to the gratification of his nature, which combines sub- 
terfuge with the love of climbing. Moreover, the goat seems 
to have a strong sense of his individuality, everywhere stand- 
ing cJone, and shunning contact. Now, place and individu- 
ality are essential to each other, and both are essential to 
music and dancing. Individuals can be placed in harmoni- 
ous relations to each other, and harmonious relations can con- 
fer individuality even upon sounds, as is the case with the 
notes in music. Place and individuality in the goat cause 
him to be possessed of the faculties of " time" and " tune." 
It is evident that he has a good knowledge of metre, for in 
leaping from rock to rock he combines an accurate perception 
of time and distance, and we can testify that he has a percep- 
tion of tune, for we have heard him at night utter sounds that 
were musical in their combination, so much so as to convince 
us that there is " music in him." The sounds were singularly 
human and pathetic, and touched our souls with a sympathy 
that the notes of no other animal ever awakened. We pre- 



THE GOAT. 305 

sume that those who are accustomed to sleep in the neighbor- 
hood of goats have often heard them. 

The reader may be disposed to laugh at the idea that a 
goat can sing; but there is the same approach to singing in 
the cries of this animal, that there is to eloquence in the bark- 
ing and howling of the dog. That the goat is possessed of 
the elements of the art and science of dancing we have before 
observed. The ancient Jews excelled in this accomplishment, 
as they did in music, and their descendants are equal in these 
respects, if not superior, to the people with whom they dwell. 

Music is the language of love, and " perfect love casteth 
out fear;" hence the cultivation of music gives increase to 
courage, and whatever diminishes bravery diminishes the 
love for music. Of animals that are fond of fermented food 
the notes are discordant and harsh, and these animals are 
cowardly ; but of animals that will not eat and drink unless 
their food and water be fresh and pure, the notes are soft and 
musical, and these animals are not cowardly and cruel, but 
cautious and brave. Fermentation is disorder and confusion, 
and it corresponds to and is promotive of discord in the per- 
son who allows it in the food and drink that he uses. Music 
inspires courage, and cultivates it. The schoolboy whistles 
to put down the fear that haunts him when he passes a grave- 
yard at night. Tam O'Shanter in the neighborhood of Kirk 
Alloway is described — 

" Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet, 
Whiles croning o'er some avid Scotch sonnet, 
Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares. 
Lest bogles catch him unawares." 

The soldier, with all his boasted bravery, requires 
*« the thrilling fife and pealing drum" 

to nerve him to the dread encounter; and the music is first 
and foremost, the warriors following behind, with the expres- 
sion "Who's afraid ?" legible in their faces. 

There is no disputing the courage of the goat: his indispo- 
sition to run when there is a provocation to fight is well 
known, though, as before stated, he has a peculiar way of ma- 

20 



306 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



king his assault. The Jews are courageous; they always 
were, and always will be. They have no need to " pluck up 
courage," and hence no need of a " brandy smasher." A 
drunken Jew is a rare commodity. In dealing with you, they 
make up their minds at once what they will do; and though 
they invariably conclude to make a large profit, they are, on 
account of their courage, fair people to deal with. They keep 
their eye upon the " main chance," which they could not do 
if they shrunk timidly away ; and they are always ready for 
that 

" tide in the affairs of men, 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 



Here is the " Jew boy, by Mark Lemon." You may trust 
him to earn a living, and to live easily without seeming to be 





busy, for he takes after his seniors by a kind of instinct. The 
philosophy of living is known only to the Jew: it is to live 
free from care, to be never troubled with business, to live 
easily as if the means of living were abundant, and by seem- 
ing to do nothing to show that business is prosperous. This 
is the air and manner of the Jew boy ; he has nothing of the 
loafer about him except the appearance. 

It is curious to trace the likeness between the Jew and the 
goat in the general appearance and ki the features and ex- 
pressions of the countenance. The signs of attack and rela- 
tive-defence in the convexity of the nose, the large signs of 
acquisitiveness and love of clothing in the breadth of that 



THE GOAT. 



307 



organ, the love of eminence in the elevation of the wing of 
the nostril, the want of concentration in the shortness of the 
upper lip, the strength of the love of home and of family pride 
in the length and stiffness of the under lip, the energy and 
impulsiveness of love and will in the beard and chin, the signs 
of substitution, subterfuge, and the love of climbing, in the 
ridge of the eyebrow, the look of attention to external objects, 
and many other things, betray the relationship between the 
Israelite and the goat. 

The fondness of the Jew for things "as old as the hills," 
has been already spoken of. He has the strongest possible 
attachment to the religion of his forefathers, as well as to the 
country they inhabited. He has no ability to change his 
creed. The goat is equally attached to the remains of the 





generations that are past, as for example old castles, moulder- 
ing walls, the ruins of temples, and 

" Rocks, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 
The fragments of an earlier world." 

He has " antiquity" written in his visage, and expressed in 
his sage demeanor, and in that long beard that has always 
been the badge of wisdom and patriarchal dignity. Who 
more than the Jew has defended this mark of manhood amid 
all the obloquy that has been heaped upon it? He inclines 
to preserve it as a token of age, of wisdom, of experience, and 
of matured and masculine intellect. It carries with it the im- 
pression of authority, as of something that grows hoary with 
age, and resists the liability to decay. "Wo betide the hand 
that plucks the wizard beard of hoary error !" That hand — 



808 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

** Might wish that it had rather dared 
To pull the devil by the beard !" 

The Jew had ancestors that lived from two to nine hundred 
years ; and nothing could be more sure to offend him than 
the representation that one of these was wanting a beard. 
The profession of a barber finds no followers among the Jews. 
And yet the Jew is a notorious shave, or there is no truth in 
the common opinion. He takes the whole or none ; figura- 
tively speaking, he " grinds the faces of the poor." This kind 
of business is very thoroughly done in a pawnbroker's estab- 
lishment, and the Jews are the people to do it. In this de- 
graded condition they resemble the goat that is smelled as 
far as he is seen, and is classed with skunks. " The smell in a 
pawnbroker's store is sickening ; it nearly resembles what the 
Spaniards call aroma de bacallo" 



THE SHEEP. 



300 



CHAPTEE XXXYI. 



Let the individual here presented be described according 
to the signs of character in the " Outlines of Physiognomy," 
and we shall see that his traits agree with those of the sheep, 
to which animal he is seen to bear a marked resemblance. 
Such a face speaks very great mild- 
ness and amiability, refined and ar- 




dent affections, unaffected modesty, and the total absence of 
ill-will. It expresses the love of children, of parents, brothers 
and sisters, and the social affections grounded in the domes- 
tic. Children are regarded by him as "little lambs," and he 
teaches them by his own meekness and dependence the force 
of the petition, " Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." 
To trust in the " Good Shepherd," and to commit his charge 
to the Power that protects himself, is his first concern. 

In the man who resembles the sheep, the signs of attack, 
relative-defence, and self-defence, in the ridge of the nose, are 
generally large, though less than in the man who resembles 
the goat ; and, to confess the truth, he is never backward to 
engage in a fair and honest discussion, but it is always with 
mildness and courtesy, and without the least disposition to 
take the advantage of his opponent. In this he is very differ- 
ent from the person who favors the goat ; for the latter, though 



310 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



" all things to all men," makes it a point to take the advantage 
in an argument, and is often captious. The one has large 
subterfuge, retaliation, and love of contest, and the other is 
exceedingly deficient in these, and has great love of pre- 
serving. 

Men of true courage and heroism more frequently resemble 
sheep, goats, hares, and other timid, inoffensive animals, than 
lions, tigers, and animals of the savage variety. This can be 

easily seen by looking 
at our own revolutiona- 
ry heroes, and at tne 
truly brave and patri- 
otic men of other conn- 
tries, and by contrast- 
ing these with the ty- 
rants and rulers who 
hold the same relation 
to the former that the 
savage animals do to 
l /MS\ ^HP W the inoffensive. The de- 

structive instrument is 
like the passion that em- 
ploys it. "Battering- 
rams" are bolder instru- 
ments of war than pikes and guns : they seek to conquer at 
once, without the shedding of blood ; they are levelled against 
inanimate objects — 
and are the very in- 
struments to " con- 
quer a peace." We 
use this as figurative 
of the warrior who 
resembles a ram. He 
is essentially peace- 
ful, and the exercise 
of his superior tactics 
and bravery in war is 
for the sake of peace and repose, as is truly the case with the 





THE SHEEP. 311 

sheep. In the warrior represented on the preceding page, the 
similarity in the air and expression of the countenance to the 
peaceful and gentle animal with which he is compared is 
easily perceived. There is a striking resemblance to the ram 
in the profile of General Scott. 

The sheep makes good use of the fine developments along 
the ridge of his nose — sometimes in a friendly argument with 
his fellow, in which he gives and takes without any tokens of 
savage anger; and sometimes in a tug of war with some inof- 
fensive post, which his imagination seems to convert into a 
hostile champion. The part of his head which is brought to 
bear upon the object of attack is the sign of substitution, or 
the lower part of the forehead in the place called the frontal 
sinits. It is, in reality, the faculty of substitution that is par- 
ticularly exercised in this case, the post being substituted for 

an individual, and the wall for an armv of soldiers. Bv the 

.... . " » * 

exhibition of martial prowess against inanimate objects, the 

enemy, if he have ordinary prudence, is convinced that resist- 
ance would be vain, and that it is owing to the magnanimity 
of the injured party that he is not severely punished. As it 
is not the love of triumph that prompts the sheep to an onset, 
he is satisfied to try his strength on some insensible object, 
and this he regards with a friendly feeling, as the means of 
his making a demonstration. It is a singular trait of charac- 
ter that we are speaking of, for those who resemble the sheep 
are not much observed. In such it might appear as if it were 
the effect of education and discipline; but observe, and you 
will see that it is a natural disposition. The love of preserving 
is uppermost in the animal we are speaking of, and in those 
who resemble him, even when the warlike faculties are called 
into exercise. 

The bearing of the head in those who resemble sheep is in- 
dependent, but not proud. He who, with the appearance of 
belonging to the genus ovis, hangs his head meanly, has in 
his composition something of the character of the wolf; he is 
in the habit of " casting sheeps' eyes" upon the lamb, the em- 
blem of innocence and virtue, and this has given him the 
"hang-dog" look that is observed in the dog that is to be 



312 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



hanged for stealing sheep. The sneakish look that we are 
speaking of is conspicuous in the canine animal that hangs 
about the sheepfold, and says — 

"'Tis conscience does make cowards of us all;" 

and pronounces the sentence of hanging "by the neck till he 
be dead, dead !" But even this, mean as it is, is better than 
deception, or the wearing of u sheeps' clothing," by which 
wolves endeavor to palm themselves off for sheep. It must 
not be forgotten that we are to distinguish between the look 
of " sheepishness," as it is called, and the looks that are pecu- 
liar to the sheep ; but there is hope of reformation in the man 
who is not insensible to shame. 

In the person who properly resembles the sheep there is a 
forward position of the head, indicating a certain degree of 
diffidence, or a susceptibility to shame, should there be an 
occasion for the exercise of this feeling. Large and promi- 
nent eyes, in which there 
is the expression of heroic 
daring enshrined in peace ; 
great activity ; a high and 
gently-retreating forehead 
— grace in feeling and ac- 
tion ; a light form and elas- 
^^^HIlMfflBlJ^fflBli tic step; admirable precis- 
ion in hitting thoughts up- 
on the wing, and in cloth- 
ing them with language: 
great consciousness and ca- 
pacity of suffering; tender- 
ness of the feelings of oth- 
ers, and a disposition to 
lay the burdens of human 
beings upon inanimate objects; comfort and simplicity in 
dress ; great refinement of feeling and manners ; freedom, 
simplicity, and copiousness of ideas; poetry, and sublimity, 
and elegance of expression; great love of liberty, and indig- 
nation at the wrong done to others by the right of the strongest 




THE SHEEP. 



313 




— are among the traits of character in the man who bears a 
worthy resemblance to the sheep. In his dress he is studious 
of comfort, and all his efforts are directed to contentment. 
He trusts in Providence : he scarcely knows the meaning of 
the term want or stern necessity ; he does not complain of his 
lot, nor fear that the world should know that he is set aside 
to make room for others. In many of these things (but not 
all) he is the very opposite of the man who resembles the 
goat. 

As all sheep are not equally improved, or preserved from 
deterioration, so all men are not equally noble. On the fol- 
lowing page is a profile of Alexander the Great, who for some 
reason or other, in the coin from which this cut was taken, 
was represented with ram's horns. In his youth he answered 
to the description above, but perversion changed him into the 
very opposite. The horns, which should betoken moral and 
intellectual power, like those which threw down the walls of 
an ancient city, are converted into serpents, coiling around 
the seat of infernal passions, and whispering in his ear. Spir- 
itual-mindedness is displaced by sensuality, mildness by re- 
venge, and contentment and humility by ambition and pride. 
His face is Grecian, and the Greeks as a nation resemble 
sheep; but far superior to this is the face of old Homer, 



314 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 




whose resemblance to the sheep is likewise observable. His 
is a face knotted and gnarle 1 like that of the patriarch of the 

flock, or like the oak in whose 
shade the flock reposes, listen- 
ing to the shepherd's pipe, or 
like the craggy cliffs where 
the oak braves the lightning 
and the tempest, and where 
the sheep is safe from danger ; 
but it is a face full of feeling 
and sentiment — a face from 
which the noble character has 
not been worn off by the cha- 
fing of ambition and insatia- 
ble desire. It is something 
altogether different from the 
mere " battering-ram" which 
that man is made to be who 
substitutes physical power for moral and intellectual. And 
we may observe here, that where Nature is most capable of 
giving birth to a Ho- 
mer, a Sophocles, or a 
Plato, she is most ca- 
pable of bringing the 
sheep to perfection. 
It is a meditative, phil- 
osophical sheep (see 
next page) that resem- 
bles Plato. 

The scenery that is 
best adapted to refinement and the delights of imagination is 
best adapted to the sheep, and that is the mountain scenery 
of Greece. This may appear from history, and, as there is 
truth in poetry, from pastorals also. A certain writer says 
that Attica " might rival Spain in the fineness of its wool ; 
the goat thrives on its hills; the uncultivated lands are over- 
run with thyme, serpillum, and marjoram ; the' Albanian 
shepherds lead their flocks in summer to these pastures." 




THE SHEEP. 



315 



+T& 



Now, the excellence of the honey that is brought from that- 
country is not the only excellence that is derived from the 
aromatic plants which cover the 
soil : the flavor of mutton, which 
is savory beyond that of any 
other meat, makes a demand for 
aromatic substances, and is in- 
creased by them, and therefore 
we aver that the country which 
produces the Greek is particu- 





larly suited to the sheep. The animal that is superior to all 
others as a sacrifice of a "sweet-smelling savor" is the sheep, 
and the Greeks were particularly fond of such sacrifices, and 

therefore required them. 
The aromas of flowers are 
like the breathings of the 
60ul in praise and prayer, 
in gratitude and love, and 
in pure and pious aspira- 





tions ; and hence is the offering of incense in religious wor- 
ship. The sheep is a correspondent of good affections, not 
only on account of the qualities before mentioned, but because 
bis flesh is refined and flavored by substances that correspond 



316 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



to what is spiritual and heavenly, as the animal faculties in. 
man are purified and governed by the moral and religious. 

For these reasons, and on account of innocence, the lamb 
is typical of the Christian sacrifice, as it was also the sacrifi- 
cial offering of the Greeks. The character that is most per- 
fectly represented by the sheep is that of Christ; and as Chris- 
tians are like him, there is the same difference between the 
Jews and Gentiles that there is between goats and sheep. 
Also the term " Greek" is used synonymously with " Gentile," 
for the simple reason that the Gentiles in acquiring a charac- 
ter corresponding to the innocence, purity, and excellence 
of the sheep, resemble Greeks. 
They are called Greeks for the 
same reason that they are called 
sheep. " The sheep on the right 
hand and the goats on the left" 
is the contrasted position of the 
Jews and Gentiles in respect to 





Christ. The propriety of this figure has been sufficiently 
shown in the resemblance of certain persons to the sheep, and 
of others to the goat, in both character and physiognomy. 
The portrait above is that of Oberlin. The man who resem- 
bles the sheep in natural disposition, if he be a Christian, can 
say with the utmost degree of truth and feeling : — 

" The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want ; 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
He restoreth my soul : 

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil : for thou art with me ; 
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me/' 



THE SHEEP. 317 

As to the Greeks themselves, or the better class of them, 
we can not do better than to take the following description : 
"The Athenians have not lost their ancient urbanity; their 
accent is more harmonious than any other in Greece ; their 
language is less diffuse, and for that reason more energetic. 
Their appearance is nearly the same as that of their ances- 
tors ; the women of Athens are still distinguished for their 
light figures, the oval form of the face, the regular contour, 
the straight line that marks the profile, full black eyes, high 
forehead, red lips, small hands and feet; they are equally 
graceful in the mournful dance of Ariadne and in the rapid 
mazes of the Romaika. The simplicity of the ancient dress 
is in some degree retained : a white tunic descends from the 
neck, and a white mantle covers the arms and falls over the 
shoulders; a handkerchief tied loosely around the head does 
not conceal their jet-black hair, but the barbarous empire is 
typified in a clumsy and ill-placed girdle, red trowsers, and a 
heavy Turkish cloak." The resemblance to the sheep is here 
sufficiently described, and it might be very well contrasted 
with the resemblance between Turks and turkeys. 

The reason assigned for the language of the Athenians 
being more energetic than that of other Greeks is that it is 
less diffuse. We see the correspondence of this in the mo- 
tions of the sheep, which are short and quick. What is lost 
in strength, or " the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull 
all together," as they say at sea, is made up in quickness, 
elasticity, and energy ; and this is especially suited to expres- 
sion, or to being the medium of moral and intellectual power: 
for as grossness is necessary to the former, so refinement is 
essential to the latter. Sailors are consequently clumsy and 
gross, and so are all those whom society condemns to the gal- 
leys, or, in other words, to hard labor; but those who study 
grace in action, and engage in such employments as require 
bodily and mental activity, will acquire moral and intellect- 
ual refinement with much more facility than those with whom 
these conditions are not attended to. The relation of analysis, 
and consequently of refinement, to language, is very evident ; 
and the man who resembles the sheep in a marked degree is 




318 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

interested in language as the means of expressing the must 
refined and delicate shades of thought and feeling, and will 
probably do much toward perfecting it. He will wish to free 
it of all that is unmeaning and cumbersome, for these things 
are clogs to the wheels of progress, and he regards them as 
sand in sugar or a sinecure in a government. 

The sign of architecture and the memory of names in the 
Greek contributes very much to his resemblance to the sheep. 
It is architecture, probably, together with 
large attack, which inclines the sheep to 
brace the top of his nose against a pillar 
or post ; and when lie wishes to make a 
forcible entree, he calls into exercise his 
large endurance, and, like certain woolly- 
beaded gentlemen, tries the strength of 
his skull. In many more amiable traits 
than this does the negro resemble the 
sheep, but we need only say that with proper advantages he 
becomes a good Christian. 

The rocks with which the sheep is surrounded in his mount- 
ain-home are natural fortifications, or embrasures, where 
liberty is often better protected than in castles and fortres- 
ses. They are the foundations of the beautiful temples and 
palaces in the higher world which the Greeks took and handed 
down to earth after they had peopled them with gods and god- 
desses, and with the sublimest of their heroes. The Grecian 
deities were the embodiments of their own exquisite and re- 
fined natures ; and what the horse is to Italian art, the sheep 
is to the Grecian. Fainting and dramatic representation are 
more perfect in the former, and architecture and sculpture in 
the latter. The man who stops short of the perfection which 
the Greeks attempted to embody in their deities (and in which 
they failed), stops short of the spiritual beauty of which the 
aheep is a correspondent. That perfection is reached in the 
conception of the Divine Man, and is aimed at by those who 
follow his example. It is with them as with a flock of sheep 
— where the Leader goes, the flock is sure to follow. " He 
leadeth them out, he calleth them all by name, and they fol- 



THE SHEEP. 



319 



low him, but a stranger will they not follow, for they know 
not the voice of strangers." Where the people are unani- 
mous, and will not be diverted from following their leader, 
what victories can they not accomplish? 

One other trait of character in the sheep we must mention, 
at the risk of being tedious. It is irritability and indigna- 
tion. The sheep when offended 
(stamps indignantly with her 




foot. This conies from relative-defence and love of liberty. 
It is a noble trait of character, one for which the Greeks dis- 
tinguished themselves in ancient times, and which their throw- 
ing off the Turkish yoke shows that they are still possessed 
of. Spirit and gentleness are united in this face of Kalergi, 
the Greek patriot. The gentleness of the sheep does not en- 
title him to the name of "good-natured," which is often a. 
doubtful compliment. " Hogs," says a newspaper paragraph, 
" are patterns of good-humor. Hit 'em a kick, and they for- 
get it as soon as they are out of reach. Dog 'em, and they 
root as happy as ever the minute they are left alone." This 
comes from the insensibility of the animal, and from his inca- 
pability of feeling a "righteous indignation," and not from a 
lack of retaliation and self-defence. Let an injury once pen- 
etrate the crust of his insensibility, and he will revenge it on 
the spot, or show that he is not so forgetful of injuries as you 
supposed. But the indignant person is not implacable; he 
is merciful and forgiving. That which rouses indignation ia 



320 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

an offence against truth and goodness, purity and innocence, 
or some other person than one's self; and it was exhibited 
perfectly in Him who was called the " Lamb of God," and 
prominently in the characters of the gods, who were a fore- 
shadowing of the Divinity that was to be restored. 

The goat is very like the sheep, notwithstanding the para- 
dox, and in like manner the Jew has points of contact with 
the Christian; Moses is the representative of Christ, and the 
Old Testament is typical of the New. The corporeal senses 
are the inlets to the mind, and through the "letter" of a com- 
munication we arrive at the " spirit" of it. The Jew is literal. 
Shylock says simply, " It is in the bond ;" but the converted 
Jew says, "The letter is of no profit — it is the spirit that 
quickens." The Christian " puts off the old man," and the 
Jew puts it on ; the literal of which is, that the Christian 
throws off his old garments, and the Jew takes them ! 



THE PARROT. 



321 



CHAPTEK XXXYII 



"We often hear of children learning to repeat like parrots. 
The gift of language ought, indeed, to entitle the parrot to 
comparison with somebody. But it is not the ape that we 
are speaking of. As for saying a man's words after him, the 
parrot is entirely above it, except it be with the expectation 
of a reward. There is nothing in which originality is so much 
exercised as in the use of the tongue. Language is artificial, 
and the constant ef- 
fort to invent new lan- 
guages shows itself in 
'provincialisms,' not 
only in provinces but 
in districts, the world 
over. You ma} 7 try 
to get the parrot to 
say, « Pretty Poll," 
or " Polly want cof- 
fee," by setting her 
the example, but you 
will fail in the object. 
It is only to the words " Polly want cracker f " that she deigns 
a response. She despises servile imitation, and aspires to 
originality. Think you she is going to make a ninny of her- 
self by showing her weakness and dependence ? Rather than 
not talk at all, she will say what she has heard others say, but 
it will be when she supposes you have forgotten it. She 
would much rather do what you do not want her to do — to 
imitate your infirmities, for example — as therein she shows 
she is not indebted to a master. She aspires to originality in 
everything. You see in her all sorts of one sided, strange, 

21 




COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



outlandish motions, the results of her unwillingness to follow 
in the footsteps of others. 

In inferior minds the love of originality shows itself in 
oddity, and, when this is connected with a taste for wit, in a 
constant exhibition of drollery. There is a perfect agreement 
between the parrot and the clown, and the value mat is at- 
tached to them is the same in both. They are tolerated for 
the same reason, viz., the amusement they afford by the con- 
stant exhibition of something new and startling, and by their 
buffoonery. It is a vulgar taste, identical with that which 
gleans the u horrible and awful" in newspapers, and prefers 
a lusus naturcB to what is orderly and beautiful. Those who 
patronize clowns are people who have the same traits, but are 
in too high a station, or consider it a little below their dig- 
nity, to act the part of buffoons. Still the clown, though he 
makes a fool of himself, in compliance with the notion that 
a fool is a rare commodity in a court, has often more influence 
over those he amuses than any other man, and treats his mas- 
ter familiarly and even contemptuously. It is well fcr him 

that he can cry out, " I say, 
master," every now and then 
— for if his " master" were 
not his master in the art he 





professes, he would be considered as deserving of banishment 
for every tenth witticism that he utters. Like the parrot, he 
never says anything you w T ould put into his mouth to say — 
it is something else, or nothing. 



THE PARROT. % &2>'6 

It is laughable to hear the parrot laugh like the clown, or, 
what is the same thing, like some ridiculous old fellow who 
bursts out in spite of the unmusical quality of his voice, and 
whose laugh, therefore, is more laughable than what he laughs 
at! He coughs like somebody with the consumption, till he 
is apparently exhausted, and almost goes into a swoon ; " tells 
on you," when you expected that your doings were a profound 
secret; shows a decided taste for whatever is unpopular; is 
grotesque, and in all respects a perfect clown. People who 
are like him are glib with their tongues, make a burlesque of 
singing and eloquence, introduce variations and high-flown 
language into their performances, all for the sake of original- 
ity ; which shows that, after all, there is more harmony in the 
world than discord, or that order is the rule and absurdity 
the exception. 

But all persons who resemble the parrot do not resemble 
him thus literally. The love of originality and the gift of 
tongues are not always connected with a sense of the ludicrous, 
uor with such mischief as lurks in the parrot. There is many 
a sober innovator, whose delight it is to ponder 

" o'er many a volume of forgotten lore," 

that he may not be supposed to make use of the humdrum 
literature of the day; who introduces obsolete words and 
coins new ones, and makes a patchwork of all languages ; 
makes use of execrable phrases, and invents a style that may 
be called his own. He has the appearance of great learning, 
of being able to run through the contents of musty libraries 
at a single glance; passes over modern discoveries, in search 
of things quaint and queer, which, being monstrosities, and 
buried out of the sight of man, he considers proper subjects 
for discovery. Whatever was forced upon the world as a mis- 
fortune and a necessity, he is particularly solicitous to bring 
to light. The impression that his matter is new, and out of 
the ordinary course of tilings, he enforces by the singularity 
of his style, and his verbosity and grandiloquence. Invention 
he makes synonymous with discovery, and discovery with in- 
vention; but his love of originality is gratified in his being 



324 



COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 





considered the author of his discoveries, and on examination 
they are found to be — 

"The children of an idle brain, 

Begot of nothing but vain phantasy." 



His grand idea is original- 
ity, and as this is attained by 
raking up whatever is explo- 
ded, and by paying homage to 
/ Misfortune ; and as language, 

in which he is so thoroughly 
engrossed, is the mere clothing of ideas — his philosophy is 
necessarily materialistic. His marvellous acquaintance with 
languages, and the multiplicity of his words, are as much a 
subject of wonder as is the gift of speech in the parrot. He 
bends all his efforts to excite the wonder of people more a-jd 
more — 

44 Till they cry out, * You prove yourself so able, 
Pity you were not dragoman at Babel; 
For had they found a linguist half so good, 
I make no question but the tower had stood !' " 



THE MOCKING-BIRD. 



325 




There is a character quite different from this, and yet 
closely related to it : it is that which resembles the mocking- 
bird. This bird is as wonderfully gifted as the parrot, but 
his gift is eloquence. Intonation, inflection, harmonious mod- 
ulation, chords that waken echoes in the breasts of a thousand 
warblers, are as easy in his throat as motion in his wings. 

Those who are gifted with elo- 
quence possess a strong resem- 
blance to the mocking-bird ; they 
strike the chords in human bo- 
soms when they waken their own, 
without producing a jarring dis- 
cord other than is necessary to 
increase the harmony ; they know 
the secret spring of feeling in the 
human heart. They possess ex- 
traordinary knowledge of human 
nature, and the reason is, they 
feel what others feel, intuitively, 
in a way they can not account for. They are better physiog- 
nomists than others, but how it is that they are seldom or 
never deceived in their 
estimate of character 
they can not tell. 

The eloquence that 
the mocking-bird pos- 
sesses in so extraordi- 
nary a degree is ac- 
companied by a won- 
derful knowledge of 
character. He never 
fails to distinguish his 
friends from his ene- 
mies in the animal cre- 
ation, and is almost equally sagacious in respect to human 
beings. He is as wary of enemies as the crow, but his confi- 
dence in building his nest close by a house, and a few feet 
from the ground, shows that he is not governed by suspicion 




326 



COMPAKA TIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



in liis relations with others. Of the cat-bird, which is a mock- 
ing-bird of very charming accomplishments, Audubon says: 
" In some instances I have known this bird to recognise at 
once its friend from its foe, and to suffer the former even to 
handle the treasure deposited in its nest, with all the marked 
assurance of the knowledge it possessed of its safety; when, 
on the contrary, the latter had to bear all its anger. The 
sight of a dog seldom irritates it, while a single glance at the 
wily cat excites the most painful paroxysms of alarm." This 
knowledge of the dispositions of others is very intimately con- 
nected with his gift of eloquence ; for the notes of different 
birds are the sounds of their affections, and the bird that can 
express them all must have inspired the feelings which each 
one expresses the moment he heard them. 

Another trait of the mocking-bird is his deadly hostility to 
oppressors, particularly the snake, and his readiness to take 
the part of the injured. This is naturally associated with elo- 
quence. In all ages of the world, and in all countries, the 

theme that has awa- 
kened eloquence more 
than any other is Lib- 
erty, and the right of 
the weak to the pro- 
tection and sympathy 
of the strong. A bad 
cause inspires some- 
thing the very oppo- 
site of this. The elo- 
quence uttered in the 
cause of humanity is 
divine, and only this is 
immortal. And those 
orators whose services 
were rendered to hu- 
manity, and whose fame is the inheritance of mankind, had 
wonderful knowledge of the human heart. The action of an 
orator is the earnest of his sensibility, every nerve and fibre 
of his frame being thrilled with the enthusiasm of his inspira 




THE MOCKING BIRD. 327 

tion, like the bird, alive in every feather, " fast fluttering all 
at once," and unable to contain himself. The eloquence it- 
self, as corresponding to the outpourings of the mocking-bird 
— it would be a letting-down to attempt to describe it. 

It is man's freedom and his moral accountability that are 
indicated in the countenance. Technically speaking, the 
signs of the voluntary action of the faculties are in the face. 
For this reason, and because pathos and the ability to move 
the feelings of others implies a knowledge of nature, and of 
human nature in particular, eloquence is inseparable from 
physiognomy. The beautiful things appertaining to the lat- 
ter that are always being introduced into the discourses of 
our finest orators, are proof of the connection. The knowledge 
of Nature in its widest sense is embraced in the term Physi- 
ognomy, and Nature is the theme of the most glowing descrip- 
tions. The crowning work of creation is the subject of inspi- 
ration. 



328 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



CHAPTER XXXYIII. 

The reader who has felt a sufficient interest in our subject 
to accompany us to the last chapter, will have made a num- 
ber of observations in confirmation of our own, and some, no 
doubt, that are really or apparently contradictory. We do 
not claim to be infallible, and the reader is not bound to be- 
lieve anything that he does not see to be true. Of the state- 
ments we have made, and respecting your interest in them, 
we would say to you, gentle reader, as we heard an Irish 
apple-woman say to a boy who asked her for an apple : *• If 
you see one at all that pleases yourself, take it." This conve- 
niently illustrates the gentlemanly relation, as well in respect 
to ideas as in respect to bodily hospitalities, at the same time 
that it illustrates the natural gentility of the Irish, and, a pri- 
ori, the gentility of the dog. The language used by that poor 
Irishwoman, and the common speech of Irishmen, is such as 
is heard when one gentleman addresses another, and of the 
kind that is used in genteel society. 

Dear reader, we fancy you asking us mentally to let go 
your button, at the same time that you are attentive and po- 
lite. You must not suppose that we have inflicted upon you 
all that we might have done, had we been disposed to trace 
the resemblances between men and all the inferior animals 
of creation. We must receive credit for not having even men- 
tioned all the resemblances between the men and animals that 
we have treated of. For example, we might have asked you 
to observe that, of the two classes of negroes, the one open 
their mouths like fishes, and the other their jaws like ele- 
phants. Then we might have directed your attention to the 
fact that the English are inclined to drawl, and to utter half 
their words in the inspiration of the voice ; to use aspirates 



CONCLUSION. 329 

where they ought not, and to leave them off where they be- 
long : like the cow in her long-drawn loo, in her moo-hoo ; in 
her h as in hoo, when she takes back her breath ; and in her 
neglect of the h as in hoist, when she has a potato in her 
throat, which gives her occasion to expel what she can not 
swallow. It is evident that other animals, the dog and the 
cat for example, when they endeavor to expel anything from 
the throat, give the sound of h j and that in inspiration they 
give only the vowel sonnd, if any. It is in consequence, there- 
fore, of a resemblance to the cow, that the Englishman says, 
" 'Ear me," and " Lend me your Aears." It is worth men- 
tioning, also, that one of the most celebrated places in Eng- 
land is called "Ox-ford." Then, if we had said all that we 
might have said about the resemblance between the China- 
man and the hog, we should have remarked upon the simi- 
larity of sounds — as, for example, that the words Tchong- 
Koue, Ning-po, Hong-kong, Kwang-tung, and the Choos and 
the Foos of the Chinese language, partake of the nasal grunt 
and the foo-'mg of an old hog; while Fu-keen, Pekin, Pe- 
chele, and the like, are akin to the squeaking of a little pig. 
As the life employment of the hog is chewing at first-hand 
(for he has no time to spend in chewing the cud), it is not 
strange that nearly every other word of the Chinese language 
has a " choo" in it, so chat the Chinese in conversing do little 
besides choo. Then we might have spoken of the similarity 
of the French language to that of the frog, till with the twirl- 
ing of linguals about our ears we might have fancied ourselves 
in Bedlam. We might have drawn comparisons between the 
languages of men and animals, as between the faces of these 
and those; but we did not, and there are many other things 
we did not touch upon. 

It may be thought that in the preceding chapters there is 
no orderly arrangement; but there is an order, and it is ac- 
cording to harmony, and for that reason it is not easily per- 
ceived. Harmony is so delightful, that we perceive only that 
it governs us, and not that it governs us by laws. When we 
have unfolded the Science of Nature more fully, we shall ana- 
lyze and understand that which we are now sufficiently happy 



330 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

in feeling. From feeling we shall glide into perceiving, from 
perceiving into understanding, and from understanding intc 
something higher. 

"We are hard-hearted indeed if, having studied our relation- 
ship to the inferior animals, we are not disposed to treat them 
more kindly. We sympathize with them, for we perceive 
that the same faculties which warm our breasts animate theirs. 
"We share with them our " creature comforts," for they are 
creatures more than we, and our superior reason enables us to 
provide for those comforts better than they. Our moral and 
religious inspiration, by which we are distinguished, prompts 
us to confer happiness on others. If we are not true to this, 
we are inhuman — that is, we are neither men nor brutes — 
and this never can be said of the inferior animals. Creatures 
are not bad. A person with a good natural disposition is 
called a a good creature," and it is in reference to our natural 
dispositions that we are called the " creatures of God." — "An 
unfortunate creature" we often hear of, but who ever heard 
of a wicked creature, except it were of some one whose wick- 
edness is synonymous with ugliness, such as is observed in the 
cow or the goat? If we say to a person, "You wicked crea- 
ture !" the word " creature" shows that we do not mean it. 
The word " wicked" is an absurdity in such a connection, and 
therefore it is applied wittily. Simply, "You creature!" is 
equivalent to saying of the person thus addressed, that — 

" E'en his failings lean to virtue's side !" 

A perverted character has never the term " creature" applied 
to it. It is evident, therefore, that our relationship to the 
lower animals is no disgrace to us if it is none to them. In this 
case, we are " children of Nature," as they are, but more per- 
fectly, for we are also the " children of God." It is an honor 
to be the children of "the common Mother" when wisdom is 
given us to know our Father — which wisdom is not given to 
the lower animals. A true nobleman will not despise his 
poor relations : he knows that his origin is humble, and that 
all his riches and honors are conferred by his Sovereign. 
"Man is an animal." With this humiliating truth we com 



CONCLUSION. 331 

menced our subject, and with this we conclude. But for the 
use which we should make of this knowledge, we adopt the 
sentiments of an old author: — 

"Man, considered in himself, and in his own proprium, is 
nothing but a beast, having like senses, like appetites, like 
lusts, and also like affections in every respect; his good and 
best loves are likewise very similar, as the love of associates 
of his own species, the love of children, and the love of his 
mate ; so that there is no difference between them in any re- 
spect. But that he is man, and more excellent than the beasts, 
is, because he has an interior life, which beasts have not, nor 
are capable of having; this life is the life of faith and of love 
from the Lord ; and unless this life were to influence and 
prevail in each of those properties which he has in common 
with the beasts, he would never be anything else but a beast : 
as, for instance, in respect to love toward his associates, if he 
loved them only for the sake of himself, and there were not 
in the love something more celestial and divine, he could not 
be called a man in consequence of that love, because it is 
similar with the beasts : and so in other instances : wherefore 
unless the life of love from the Lord were in his will, and the 
life of faith from the Lord in his understanding, he would in 
no respect be a man. By the life which he has from the 
Lord, he lives after death, because thereby the Lord joins 
him to himself; and thus he has a capacity of being in 
heaven with the angels, and of living to eternity: and al- 
though man lives a wild beast, and loves nothing else but 
himself, and the things which respect himself, yet the mercy 
of the Lord is so great, being divine and infinite, that he 
never leaves man, but continually breathes into him his life 
by the angels, which, notwithstanding his perverse reception 
thereof, still gives him a capacity of thinking, of reflecting, 
of understanding what is good or evil, whether it relate to 
moral, civil, worldly, or corporeal life, and thereby of discern- 
ing what is true or false." 

Mankind in general find their resemblance in the ape, as 
was shown in a preceding chapter; while races of men, and 
individuals in particular, resemble animals of every species 



332 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

and variety. As to animals in general, we also find their 
resemblance in the ape : it is easy to see that the guadrumana 
resemble both beasts and birds, living as they do in trees, 
and grasping with the posterior members, as birds do, and 
belonging at the same time to the mammalia. It is evident, 
therefore, that every man, in resembling the ape, resembles 
the entire animal kingdom, and that by resembling each in- 
dividual beast and bird he resembles each individual man to 
whom such beast or bird bears a resemblance. As all men 
have a resemblance in common, it is certain that each indi- 
vidual man has in himself the peculiarities of all other peo- 
ple — so blended, that only his own individual peculiarity is 
conspicuous. Also, as the predominant animal nature is bo- 
vine in one, equine in another, canine in another, feline in 
another, and so on — it is evident that there is in every indi- 
vidual a congregation of all sorts of animal natures, and that 
the difference between people is the predominance of one or 
other of these elements. Of course, it is the element that is 
most conspicuous in an individual that constitutes his resem- 
blance to a particular beast or bird. 

Being fortified by reasoning, we have no hesitation in say- 
ing, figuratively, that man's breast is a menagerie of animals, 
of beasts and birds, clean and unclean, wild and tame. To 
name them and to govern them by morality and religion, is 
his highest duty and his highest delight. He transforms 
them into the likeness of the higher faculties by which they 
are governed ; and with these they are so admirably blended, 
that they are no longer animal, but human. The animals of 
the external world still resemble him, for he subjects them to 
the same discipline as those within. He masters them by 
love and kindness ; he makes them beautiful and useful, 
peaceful, harmonious, and happy. He exhibits in himself 
(and it is shadowed forth in the animals around him) a fulfil 
ment of the prophecy : — 

44 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, 
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid , 
And the calf, and the young lion, and the fading, together; 
And a little child shall lead them. 



CONCLUSION. 333 

And the cow and the bear shall feed ; 

Their young ones shall lie down together: 

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 

And the sucking-child shall play on the hole of the asp, 

And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den : 

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." 

The helpless condition in which man is born makes it ne- 
cessary that he should be endowed with a superlative degree 
of that faculty which prompts him to look out for his own in- 
terests. It is difficult to see how a person could be possessed 
of individuality without self-love for its basis, or recognise the 
individuality of others without first recognising his own, or 
ever love his neighbor until he had first loved himself. " Char- 
ity begins at home." Man is required to " love his neighbor 
as himself," which proves that the standard by which he is to 
measure his love for his neighbor exists beforehand, and that 
it is right and proper that be should have loved himself first. 
Self-love, therefore, is good ; it is necessary to a weak and 
dependent being ; and all beings are weak and dependent, 
and the Creator has given them self-love that they may supply 
their other deficiencies. And what are their deficiencies, 
and what their wants? Their first wants are physical, their 
second sensual, their third rational, and their fourth supernal. 
As long as these wants continue, so long self-love must be 
active; but, in the degree that these wants are supplied, it 
becomes man to be charitable, and to minister to the wants 
of others. It is only after these wants are supplied that man 
can become wickedly selfish. The object of self-love is to 
prompt him to take care of himself; and if he desire that 
others may take care of him, he is selfish beyond what Na- 
ture intended. An animal requires all the self-love that Na- 
ture has given it to supply itself with necessaries ; and it is 
contented to "shirk for itself" if its exertions are capable of 
supplying its wants. At tne season of the year when it is 
capable of doing more than this, Nature bestows offspring, 
and the care of the parents is expended upon other objects 
than themselves. Thus self-love in animals is kept within 
bounds; audit is proved by this that the inferior creatures 



334 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY. 

are good. But with human beings it is otherwise. They 
wish to be taken care of by others, and to be supplied with 
multitudes of things that are not necessary; and for this end 
they acquire artificial appetites, such as the appetites for to- 
bacco, tea, coffee, opium, and alcoholic stimulants. This per- 
version of self-love in man is from the perversion of the privi- 
lege of dependence, which is extreme at the moment he is 
born, and which is again extreme at the moment of his de- 
parture from this world : it is from the perversion of his per 
feet dependence upon his parents for the supply of his bodily 
wants at the commencement of his life, and of his perfect 
dependence upon his Creator for those things which alone 
can satisfy the cravings of an immortal soul at the period of 
his transition into another state of existence. Between these 
two extremes of dependence there is abundant room for self- 
exertion, self-improvement, and self-dependence, and there is 
occasion for the exercise of benevolence toward others when 
benevolence toward self has accomplished its object. What, 
then, must be the depravity of man, when, instead of loving 
himself and taking care of himself for the sake of his neigh- 
bor, he loves his neighbor and has his neighbor in keeping 
for the sake of himself? Look at those who in all countries 
oppress and enslave the bodies and souls of men, and at those 
who in their weakness and poverty exercise their tyrannical 
selfishness in oppression of the inferior animals, and you will 
see. The animal which the natural man resembles, viz., the 
ape, is selfish and disgusting in the extreme. 



THE ESC 



The Proper Study of 



O 

o 
o 
w 



Pk 



Know 




Mankind is Man. 



n 



w 

o 

o 

o 



Thyself." 



The Brain is the organ of the Mind — 
according to its size, quality, culture, health, 
and development, will there be mental man- 
ifestation. Each particular part of the body^ 
— Heart, Lungs, Stomach, Eyes, Ears, etc. 
performs separate and special functions. 
Different parts of the Brain perform different functions. The forehead is the seat of Intellect — 
the knowing faculties ; the lower back head of the Affections ; the side head of the Executive, 
propelling, constructive, and economical powers ; the top head of the Moral, Spiritual, and 
religious sentiments. And all these are subdivided, as seen in this pictorial head. To read 
character correctly, one must know something of the Temperaments, and the more he knows 
of Physiology, Physiognomy and Ethnology — the more perfectly can he judge the character, 
and capacities of his fellow-men — their adaptation to this or to that pursuit, and in what 
sphere they may be successful. It answers the question, " What Can I Do Best ?" 



flames, Numbers and Location of the Mental Faculties. 



Amattventss. — Connubial love, affection. 
Conjugal Love.— Union for life, pairing: instinct. 
Parental Love. — Care of offspring, and all young. 
Friendship. — Sociability, union of friends. 
Inhabitiveness.— Love of home and country. 
Continuity.— Application, consecutiveness. 
Yitattveness. — Clinging to life, tenacity, enduraace 
CoMBATrvENESS.— Defense, courage, criticism. 
Destructiveness. — Executiveness, push, propell. 
Alimentiveness. — Appetite for food, etc. 
Acquisitiveness.— Frugality, economy, to get. 
Secretiveness.— Self-control, policy, to keep. 
Cautiousness. — Guardedness, care-taking, safety. 
Approbativeness.- Love ofa£plause and display. 
Self-Esteem.— Self-respect, dignity, authority. 
Firmness.— Stability, perseverance, steadfastness. 
Conscientiousness. — Sense of right, justice. 
Hope.- Expectation, anticipation, perfect trust. 
Spirituality.— Intuition, prescience, faith. 
Veneration. — Worship, adoration, deference. 
Benevolence. — Sympathy, kindness, mercy. 
CoNSTRUc , ™-! !NE g S -Ingenuity, invention, tools, 
Ideality. Taste, love of beauty, poetry and art. 
Sublimity. — Love of the grand, vast, magnificent. 



22. Imitation,— Copying, aptitude for mimicry. 

23. Mirth. — Fun, wit, ridicule, facetiousness. 

24. iNDiviDUALiTY.-Observation, curiosity to see. 

25. Form.— Memory of shape, looks, persons, things. 

26. Size.— Measurement of quantity by the eye. 

27. Weight. — Control of motion, balancing. 

28. Color. — Discernment, and love of colors, hues, tints 

29. Order. — Method, system, going by rule, arrangem't. 

30. Calculation.— Mental arithmetic, numbers. 

31. Locality. — Memory of place, position, travels. 

32. Eventuality. — Memory of facts, events, history. 

33. Time.— Telling when, time of day, dates, punctuality. 
84. Tune.— Love of music, sense of harmony, singing. 

35. Language. — Expression by words, signs or acts. 

36. Causality. — Planning, thinking, philosophy, 

37. Comparison.— Analysis, infer ing, illustration. 

C. Human Nature.— Sagacity, perception, motives. 

D. Suavity— Pleasantness, blandness, nolitenes^. 



For complete definitions of the onrans, with func- 
tions, culture, etc., isee tne new work, " Brain and 
Mind," or, Mental Science Considered in Accordance 
with the Principles of Phrenology, and in Relation to 
Modern Physiology. Illustrated. Extra cloth, $1.50. 

Fowler & Wells, Publishers, 753 Broadway, N. Y. 



NEW PHYSIOGNOMY; 




0* 



SIGNS 




OF 



As manifested in Temperament and Exter- ^7 \ 

nal Forms, and especially in the Human Face \ V<^ \? 

Divine. By Samuel R. Wells. 800 pages \ more than 1,000 illustrations, with frontispiece \ portrait of 
author. Heavy tinted paper, extra muslin ; price , by mail, post-paid, $5.00 ; full calf, marbled 
edges, $8.00 ; turkey morocco, full gilt, $10.00. 

THIS is a comprehensive, thorongh, and practical 
work, in which all that is known on the subject 
treated is Systematized, Explained, Illustrated, 
and -Applied. Physiognomy is here shown to be no 
mere fanciful speculation, but a consistent and well- 
considered system of Character-reading, based on the 
established truths of Physiology and Phrenology, and 
confirmed hy Ethnology, as well as by the peculiarities 
of individuals. It is no abstraction, but something to 
be made useful ; something to be practiced by every- 
body and in all places, and made an efficient help in 
that noblest of all studies— the Study of Man. it is 
readily understood by all, and as readily applied. 




Previous Systems are given in this work, 
including those of all ancient and modern writers. 

General Principles— the Physiological laws 
on which character reading is based. 

Temperaments - Ancient Doctrines — New 
Classifications now in general use here. 

Practical Physiognomy- Gcueral Forms 
of Faces— Eyes, Month, Nose, Chin, Jaws, Teeth, 
Cheeks, Forehead, Hair, Beard, Complexion, Neck, 
Ears, Hands, Feet, Voice, Walk, Laugh, Dress, etc. 

Ethnology— The Races, Caucasian, Ind'an, Mon- 
golian, Malay, and African. 

Physiognomy applied to Marriage, Training of 
Children, to Personal Improvement, to Business, to 
Insanity and Idiocy, to Health and Disease, to Pro- 
fessions, to Personal Improvement, and to Character 
Reading, Utility of Physiognomy. 

Animal Types— Grades of Intelligence, Instinct 
and Reason, Animal Heads and Animal Types, seen 
among Men, Comparative Physiognomy. 

Graph omancy— Character revealed in Hand- 
writing, Palmistry, " Line of Life," illustrated. 

No one can read this Book without interest, without 
real profit. "Knowledge is power," and this is em- 
phatically true of a knowledge of men — of human 
character. He who has it i3 " master of the situation ;" 
and anybody may have it who will, and find in it the 
" secret of success," and the road to the largest personal 
improvement and usefulness. 



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" Among those who have contributed to the advance- 
ment of the Bcience of Physiognomy in this country, 
the author of this book is honorably distinguished, and 
we feel pleasure in bearing testimony to the conscien- 
tiousness and ability with which he has executed the 
iabonoup task that he imposed upon himself."— New 
Ysrk Herald . 




41 The most complete handbook in the langu-age ; a 
man who can not find amusement and instruction In 
Mr. Wells' book, must have a very stupid face indeed." 
—New York Tribune. 

" Take such a volume as this, and every one must 
acknowledge that physiognomy opens a wide field for 
interesting investigation."*— New York Times. 
\gents may do well to canvass for this Work. For Terms for this and other Works Address 



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